**MILWAUKEE —** Vice President JD Vance and the Labor Department’s inspector general announced a broad investigation Wednesday into alleged abuse of U.S. work-visa programs, casting the effort as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against immigration fraud.
Speaking at an anti-fraud event here, Vance said the Labor Department had already issued dozens of subpoenas. The goal, he said, is to ensure American jobs “go to American workers and not foreign fraudsters.”
Labor Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito told the New York Post that schemes under review have cost the medical industry hundreds of millions of dollars and reached other employment sectors. He said investigators believe some operations involve coercive wage-kickback arrangements and, in some cases, forced-labor or trafficking networks.
“Labor’s Office of Inspector General has uncovered widespread schemes in which employers and labor brokers submitted fraudulent applications, exploited foreign workers through coercive wage-kickback arrangements, and undercut American workers by flooding the market with below-wage labor,” D’Esposito said.
Officials cited Department of Homeland Security assessments that as much as 21 percent of H-1B petitions may be fraudulent. D’Esposito said the inquiry will also look at employment-based green cards and the PERM labor-certification process, including allegations that foreign workers displaced U.S. employees or obtained benefits through deception.
He linked some visa fraud to wider crime, saying it can be “tied to cartels” and “transnational gangs,” and warned that problems are not limited to factories. “These are people working in medical facilities and doctors’ offices,” he said.
Vance said the H-1B program was meant to bring exceptional talent in technology, science and medicine. “What’s happening way too much is that big corporations and fraudsters overseas are using this program to undercut the wages of American workers,” he said. “What we’re doing in the Trump administration, we’re saying, ‘No more.’”
The H-1B visa lets employers hire foreign workers for specialty occupations that generally require a bachelor’s degree or higher. Pew Research Center data have shown that about 73 percent of recipients come from India, with a large share in computer-related fields. Major users have included Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Apple. California, Texas, New York, Illinois and Washington typically receive large shares of approvals. Petitions peaked at 442,425 in 2022.
The administration said the investigation is meant to restore integrity to the system and put U.S. workers first. No comprehensive list of targets or criminal charges was released with Wednesday’s announcement.
