Vice President JD Vance Proposes Elimination of H-1B Visa Program

<p>Vice President JD Vance stated on Thursday that he supports eliminating the H-1B visa program, describing it as "completely broken" and alleging that employers misuse it to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor.</p><p>“My view is the H-1B program is completely broken, and I’d be very supportive of just eliminating it,” Vance said. “But while we have it, what we have to do is protect American workers. So I understand people are annoyed. What I would say is tell your congressman to fix this program.”</p><p>In an interview with conservative influencer Jack Posobiec aboard Air Force Two, Vance claimed that the program has been “totally taken advantage of” by technology companies, accounting firms, and other employers.</p><p>“If you want to say, ‘I’d like to bring a genius into the United States of America,’ you can have that conversation,” Vance said. “But if you’re going to bring in an accountant making $45,000 a year to replace an accountant who’s an American making $60,000 a year, that’s not you using the program to bring in a genius.”</p><p>“That’s you destroying American jobs and defrauding the American people,” he added.</p><p>The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty occupations and has become a political issue regarding legal immigration. Vance defended the administration's efforts to address perceived abuses while criticizing Congress for not taking action.</p><p>“Congress was not going to reform the H-1B program because unfortunately a lot of people were bought by the cheap labor lobby,” he told Posobiec. “Meanwhile, we in the Trump administration are trying to at least make it less fraudulent.”</p><p>The administration's efforts have faced legal challenges. On Wednesday, a federal judge blocked federal agencies from enforcing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions, ruling that the agencies did not follow the standard rulemaking process. Another judge had previously struck down the fee in June, and it remains blocked while the administration appeals.</p><p>This ruling pertains to a fee imposed through a presidential proclamation, separate from an additional $103,265 fee proposed by the Department of Homeland Security in August through the regulatory process.</p><p>The August proposal would require employers to pay $103,265 for each H-1B petition subject to the annual cap, including petitions for workers with advanced degrees from American universities. This fee would be in addition to existing H-1B filing fees.</p><p>“The proposed H‑1B fee is intended to recover the costs incurred across the federal government to adjudicate, vet, and support lawful immigration programs that otherwise must be funded by taxpayers,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler stated.</p><p>The proposed charge would also apply to all cap-subject petitions, including those seeking to change the status of foreign students and workers already legally in the U.S. to H-1B.</p><p>The H-1B program is capped at 85,000 new visas annually—65,000 under the regular program and 20,000 for workers with advanced U.S. degrees. Certain employers are exempt from these limits. Demand for H-1B visas often exceeds the cap, leading to an annual lottery. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported that it received more than 211,000 registrations for the most recent lottery.</p>