Greg Steube has introduced the ‘Ending Exploitative Imported Labor Exemptions Act’, or EXILE Act, to end the H-1B visa program. The EXILE Act aims to amend Section 214(g)(1)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act by ending the H-1B visa program. The H-1B visa program allows US companies to hire foreign workers subject to certain specific conditions.
Steube wrote on X that American workers should not be treated as second-class citizens. He called the H-1B visa an America Last scheme that prioritizes foreign labor over working families. He wrote that corporate America has been gaming the system against U.S. workers for years, and the government helped them do it. He said no more, and that it is time to end the H-1B forever and put working Americans first again.
The bill has been introduced at a time when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced the opening and closing dates for the H-1B 2027 Cap season initial registration. According to the bill, more than 80% of H-1B visa recipients are Indian or Chinese nationals, with priority given to younger workers.
Steube said the H-1B visa program has prevented more than 10,000 U.S. physicians from accessing residency programs by facilitating the arrival of more than 5,000 foreign-born doctors. He also said more than 16,000 Microsoft employees were displaced following the approval of more than 9,000 H-1B visas in 2025.
He continued to highlight the abuse of the H-1B visa program. FedEx utilization of the H-1B resulted in the shuttering of more than 100 facilities across the United States. Disney laid off 250 employees in 2015, only to replace them with foreign workers brought in via the H-1B visa. In 2014, Southern California Edison fired 540 workers, and their replacements were brought in from two Indian outsourcing firms that utilized the H-1B visa program.