US Vice President JD Vance touted the launch of the Donald Trump administration’s first major H-1B visa fraud investigation while stopping in Milwaukee on Wednesday (US time).

The non-immigrant work visas responsible for bringing highly skilled talent from overseas to the United States have long been on US President Donald Trump’s radar. The far-right continues to argue that companies are taking advantage of the employer-sponsored H-1B visas to hire “cheap labour” and replace American workers.

Consequently, the US Labor Department announced it was escalating its crackdown on immigration-related fraud by launching a crucial probe into alleged H-1B and PERM visa abuse, labour trafficking and the displacement of American workers, Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito told FOX Business.

Here’s what JD Vance said about the new H-1B fraud probe.

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Speaking at the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 128th Air Refuelling Wing on Wednesday, the US vice president said he was proud to announce that the US Department of Labour had issued dozens of subpoenas and opened investigations into foreign fraudsters who may be trying to misuse the H-1B visa program.

“American Jobs ought to go to American Workers and not foreign fraudsters and the Department of Labor is fighting back against it,” Vance proclaimed.

He went on to say, “Big corporations and fraudsters overseas are using this program to undercut the wages of American workers. If you are trying to take advantage of that visa program, you are not allowed into the United States.”

Backing the initiatives led by the president to clamp down on immigration-related fraud, Vance asserted that the current administration has saved “billions and billions of dollars” that “was going to fraudsters.”

Just as Trump has long accused the Joe Biden administration of allowing countless illegal immigrants to infiltrate the country, Vance accused Democrats of ignoring the matter at hand without providing any specific evidence to back his claims.

“Not a single congressional Democrat stood up and said we are going to fight back against fraud, and that’s the problem with modern congressional Democrats,” he continued.

Noting that even though his own grandparents were ‘blue-collar Democrats” they wouldn’t be able to “recognise” today’s Democratic Party, which he claimed “tries to send your money to illegal aliens instead of our hardworking seniors who earned those benefits and ought to have access to them.”

More about DOL’s H-1B visa probe

Calling the fresh investigation into alleged H-1B visa fraud the latest step in the Trump administration’s expansion of anti-fraud campaign, Labor Department’s Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito earlier told Fox Business, “This is another example where fraud is fueling violent crime.”

“Much of the visa and the human trafficking that we see when it comes to this foreign labour is tied to cartels, is tied to transnational gangs, and this is the work that we should be doing, not only to make America safe again, but to make America more affordable again.”

Listing California, New York and Illinois as some of the top states for H-1B visa applicants, the Trump admin official told the US outlet that the administration seeks to ensure hardworking Americans “are not seeing their jobs taken away by foreigners or people who are gaming the system or financially benefiting from bringing these individuals into America and putting them into jobs that, quite frankly, they are not qualified to do.”

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Highlighting that the probe was already underway, the DOL official also name-dropped Indian IT firm Cognizant while raising serious allegations about H-1B visa fraud.

“We have whistleblowers talking about some of the biggest companies like Cognizant, who have been sort of, you know, in the chatter of issues with PERM and H-1B visas,” D’Esposito told Fox.

“These abuses undermine the integrity of Department of Labour programs designed to address genuine labour shortages — not to line the pockets of bad actors at the expense of American jobs.”

As part of his aggressive overhaul of the H-1B visa program, the Trump administration introduced the hefty $100,000 fee requirement for new H-1B applications in September. The blanket fee was struck down in a US District Court ruling last month, underscoring that Trump had exceeded his authority by imposing what was deemed a tax.

The Trump admin has since filed a notice of appeal challenging the decision.

The vast majority of H-1B applications in the US are used in STEM fields. Recent years have particularly seen Indian nationals secure 70% of all H-1B visa approvals, followed by China.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, immigration, or tax advice. Immigration laws and government policies are subject to frequent change without notice. The views and opinions expressed by the experts quoted herein, if any, are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Financial Express is not responsible for any decisions made based on this information.