US Vice President JD Vance has backed the Trump administration’s decision to restrict access to H-1B visas at a high-powered conservative political conference, as the government believes it is “wrong for companies to bypass American labour just to go for cheaper options in the third world.”
Vance, who is widely expected to make a run for the Presidency in 2028, made the remarks on Sunday at the TurningPoint USA’s AmericaFest convention. A vocal critic of the H-1B programme, Vance in July claimed that firms were laying off American workers and applying for H-1B visas to hire skilled professionals from outside the country.
“Microsoft just laid off 9,000 American tech workers, but they’ve applied for thousands of H-1B visas. Don’t tell me you can’t find workers here. The math doesn’t add up,” Vance said in July.
The H-1B programme, which facilitates temporary hiring of skilled foreign workers in specialised fields, has become a lightning rod for criticism of America’s skilled immigration system among many conservatives. Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis directed state universities to stop using H-1B visas while conservative politicians in Washington — including Representatives Beth Van Duyne and Chip Roy — have suggested ending the programme altogether. Earlier this year, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin also introduced legislation to toughen enforcement of visa rules as well as to limit eligibility rules for the H-1B visa.
The Trump administration has introduced several measures to the H-1B programme. In September, Trump announced a $100,000 fee for new visa applicants, which is expected to make it uneconomical for US companies to hire foreign workers. Trump alleged “systemic abuse” of the H-1B visa system, particularly by IT outsourcing firms. The US President declared that the misuse of the H-1B programme was a “national security threat”.
The US government has also announced plans to remake the H-1B visa lottery to favour higher skilled and highly paid workers. Washington also announced Operation Firewall, an enforcement effort to crack down on fraud and misuse of the H-1B programme.
Despite this, Trump has sometimes struck a discordant tone with many of his more conservative allies. In a recent interview, Trump defended skilled immigration while arguing that America did not have enough domestic talent to fill specialised positions.
When asked if America had the required skilled talent at home, Trump stated WHEN??: “No, you don’t, no you don’t. You don’t have certain talents and people have to learn. You can’t take people off an unemployment line and say, ‘I’m going to put you into a factory where we’re going to make missiles.”
On the other hand, Vance has positioned himself as a critic of the H-1B programme as part of his broader efforts to keep support among the conservative coalition that brought Trump to power in 2024.
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