WASHINGTON – The H1-B visa program that supplies high-skilled workers to the tech industry and many others is under siege.
The president’s $100,000 surcharge remains in place, making it far less attractive for employers to hire foreign workers they say they can’t do without.
The Labor Department has launched a probe to uncover fraud. And congressional Republicans are pushing to drastically scale back the program, even as business groups warn that would diminish U.S. competitiveness.
On July 8, the Department of Labor’s internal watchdog announced a nationwide investigation into alleged H-1B visa fraud, wage kickback schemes and what the Department of Justice defines as labor trafficking – obtaining labor through force, fraud or coercion.
“Without a doubt” such abuses exist, Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said.
As an example of the sort of bad actor the office is going after, D’Esposito cited IT company Cognizant during a Fox Business interview, although that company has not been accused of visa fraud. In 2024, the company was found liable for intentionally discriminating against non-Indian and South Asian workers.
D’Esposito said his office has issued dozens of subpoenas in relation to the fraud probe. His office has not identified any employers, staffing firms, immigration consultants, lawyers or others who have been targeted.
The OIG did not respond to requests for clarification.
The last sweeping crackdown on H-1B visa fraud was in 2009, when federal prosecutors announced the arrest of 11 people across seven states – all employers, recruiters or individuals helping to facilitate visa fraud. This included submitting fraudulent petitions, creating fake job offers and fabricating supporting documents.
The effort was led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department. The Labor Department’s inspector general was involved but did not take on a major role in the investigation.
In December 2024, federal prosecutors in Illinois accused immigration lawyer Gerardo Dean and an employee, Felicitas Cordero, of helping at least 148 Filipino nurses secure H-1B and EB-2 visas by submitting fraudulent documents and misrepresenting the jobs they would be taking as manager-level. Cordero pleaded guilty in February.
The H-1B is intended to help employers fill high-skilled jobs with foreign workers, while the EB-2 is an employment-based pathway to a green card.
A 2024 report by Bloomberg News found “massive cheating” by IT staffing companies that manipulated the H-1B lottery by submitting multiple registrations for the same worker through affiliated companies.
Bloomberg estimated that roughly 1 in 6 H-1B visas awarded in 2023 was obtained through this practice. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services changed the lottery system in 2024 to select unique applicants. Duplicate entries fell by 88%.
The current Labor Department probe is tied to a taskforce President Donald Trump created in March to coordinate investigations into fraud in federal benefits programs.
The administration has also sought to make the H-1B program less inviting for employers by sharply increasing the cost of hiring foreign workers.
Trump imposed a $100,000 fee on new H1-B visa applications to discourage employers from hiring foreign workers over American citizens. The fee would not apply to foreign students already in the U.S. who then take jobs here.
Arizona, led by Attorney General Kris Mayes, was one of 20 states that sued to block the fee.
A federal judge in Boston struck down the new fee on June 8 but allowed USCIS to continue charging it pending appeal.
“This illegal tax threatened our rural school districts, our growing semiconductor industry, and Arizona’s entire economy,” Mayes said in a statement.
Arizona school districts have relied on international teachers, many on H-1B visas, to address ongoing teacher shortages.
Efforts to roll back the H1-B program are also percolating in Congress.
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Oro Valley, introduced a bill in April that would suspend the program for three years and drastically scaled it back after that – from 65,000 visas per year to 25,000.
The “End H-1B Visa Abuse Act” would also ban recipients from bringing dependents with them, and codify Trump’s $100,000 per visa fee.
The H-1B program has been “hijacked to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor,” co-sponsor Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Bullhead City, said in a statement. “If a company can hire an American, they should.”
Other House Republicans have proposed abolishing the H-1B program or restructuring it in major ways – though, like Crane’s measure, those are stuck in committee.
A bipartisan Senate proposal led by Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, would prioritize high value candidates rather than a lottery system. The Department of Homeland Security announced a shift away from a lottery in December.
“I think what Congress is trying to address is less migrant workers coming to the U.S.,” Arizona-based immigration lawyer Juan Roche said. “It’s easier to hit the lowest hanging fruit, which is the immigrant.”
He said that companies, many of which donate to political campaigns, do not want the visa restricted.
“It hasn’t changed because it works for corporate America,” he said.
Arizona business groups say they support stronger enforcement against fraud but caution that additional eligibility restrictions could give them less flexibility.
Steven Zylstra, president and chief executive of the Arizona Technology Council, said H-1B workers make up a small portion of Arizona’s workforce but “employers must have access to the world’s best talent when qualified U.S. workers are not available.”
“We don’t want an already complicated visa process to become even more difficult to navigate,” said Annie Dockendorff, a spokesperson for Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The tech industry continues to lobby Congress to expand the H1-B program.
In January, Technet – which represents Meta, Microsoft, Apple, TSMC and dozens of other major employers – called for reforms to match the supply of visas to the demand. They argue that “limiting legal employment-based immigration undermines America’s economic and national security interests.”
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