‘US Jobs Are For Americans, Not Foreign Fraudsters’: Vance Amid H-1B Probe

The H-1B work visa programme, long used by US companies to hire skilled foreign professionals, is now at the centre of one of the Trump administration’s biggest fraud probes yet, and US Vice President JD Vance has a warning for those he accused of gaming the system at the cost of American jobs.

During a stop at the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 128th Air Refuelling Wing base in Milwaukee on Wednesday, Vance told the crowd that the Labour Department had already begun issuing subpoenas and opening investigations into what he called “foreign fraudsters” misusing the visa system.

“We have a program called the H-1B visa program. This goes to show how broad-based the fraud task force is we’re… we’re fighting for your taxpayer money, but we’re also making sure that fraudsters don’t take advantage of these visa programs,” he said.

Read: In US’ Major H-1B Fraud Probe, Trump Official’s Cognizant Mention

Vance said the programme was originally a route for “a brilliant technology person, or a brilliant scientist, or a brilliant doctor” to work legally in the United States. That purpose, Vance argued, has been stretched too far. “But you know what’s happening way too much is that big corporations and fraudsters overseas are using this program to undercut the wages of American workers. So, you know what we’re doing in the Trump administration? We’re saying no more. If you are trying to take advantage of that visa program, you are not allowed into the United States of America,” he said.

“Here’s a simple principle, ladies and gentlemen: American jobs ought to go to American workers and not foreign fraudsters, and the Department of Labour is fighting back against it,” Vance added.

Vance’s statement follows the launch of the Trump administration’s first major probe into suspected fraud within the H-1B and PERM visa categories, both routes used by US employers to hire foreign workers for specialised roles.