Vice President JD Vance said he would support ending the H-1B visa programme, calling the system “completely broken” and accusing some companies of using it to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign employees.
“My view is the H-1B programme is completely broken and I’d be very supportive of just eliminating it,” Vance said Thursday in an interview with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec aboard Air Force Two.
Vance claimed that technology companies, accounting firms, and other businesses had “totally taken advantage of” the programme. He made a distinction between attracting top talent from abroad and using the programme as a way to cut labour costs.
“If you’re going to bring in an accountant making $45,000 a year to replace an accountant who is an American making $60,000 a year, that’s not you using the programme to bring in a genius,” Vance said. “That’s you destroying American jobs and defrauding the American people.”
The comments come as the Trump administration is seeking to tighten restrictions on the H-1B visa programme, including a $100,000 fee for some new petitions. The fee has been blocked by a federal judge, the second court ruling against the measure, on Thursday.
The H-1B programme permits US employers’ to hire foreign workers for specialised occupations such as technology, engineering and health care.
