The largest IT outsourcing firms have seen their H-1B visa registrations plummet by 92% under the Trump administration’s crackdown on the controversial guest worker program, and now the White House is tightening the screws even further.
President Trump recently signed an executive order expanding federal scrutiny of companies that seek to bring in foreign workers while simultaneously laying off Americans. The move represents the administration’s most aggressive action yet against what critics have long called a broken system that undercuts American wages and displaces homegrown talent.
Vice President JD Vance didn’t mince words when describing the administration’s stance. “Our message to corporate America is simple: We’re not going to let you lay off American workers so you can replace them with cheap foreign labor,” he said.
The H-1B visa program was originally designed to help American companies fill positions requiring specialized skills when no qualified U.S. workers could be found. In theory, it’s supposed to benefit the American economy by allowing businesses to access global talent for jobs that would otherwise go unfilled.
In practice, the program has become something else entirely. Critics have spent years documenting widespread fraud and arguing that major corporations exploit the system not because they can’t find American workers, but because foreign workers come cheaper. Stories abound of American employees being forced to train their own replacements before being shown the door.
The executive order takes direct aim at that practice. The new directive mandates coordination between federal agencies to examine whether companies applying for H-1B visas have recently laid off American workers or are planning to do so. The goal is straightforward: prevent corporations from gaming the system to pad their bottom lines at the expense of American families.
The order also reaffirms the $100,000 application fee Trump imposed last year. That fee alone has served as a deterrent against frivolous applications and companies looking to flood the market with cheap labor.
The administration pointed to the dramatic 92% drop in H-1B registrations from the largest IT outsourcing firms as evidence that earlier measures are working. Those companies have historically been among the heaviest users of the program, bringing in thousands of foreign workers each year to fill technology positions.
