The Trump administration launched a “major investigation” this week into instances of H-1B visa fraud. According to a press release from the Department of Labor and the Office of Inspector General, there has been a discovery of “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.”
To combat such fraud, the OIG has initiated a nationwide awareness campaign encouraging workers who believe they have been harmed by H-1B visa fraud, experienced exploitation, or been compelled to work through force or fraud to report their concerns.
“My team, in conjunction with President Trump and Vice President Vance’s Fraud Task Force, has worked relentlessly to uncover fraud, safeguard taxpayer dollars, and hold bad actors accountable. For far too long, fraudsters believed they could game the U.S. employment-based visa system and get away with it. They were wrong,” said Anthony P. D’Esposito, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor. “This isn’t just paperwork fraud—it’s the exploitation of vulnerable workers, forced labor, the displacement of American workers, and abusive human trafficking. As the Inspector General, my top priorities are exposing fraud, protecting American workers, and putting criminals in cuffs.”
During an anti-fraud event in Milwaukee, Vice President JD Vance described the visa program as originally having been “set up to ensure that if you were a brilliant technology person or a brilliant scientist or a brilliant doctor, you could come to the United States and get access to this visa program.”
“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,” Vance explained.
“What we’re doing in the Trump administration, we’re saying, ‘No more,’” he added. “If you are trying to take advantage of that visa program, you are not allowed in to the United States of America.”
