Nearly 200 investigations into potential abuses of the H-1B visa program have been launched as a part of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) efforts to “fight discrimination towards American employees,” company officers divulge to Breitbart News.
At the helm of the huge H-1B fraud initiative is Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who advised Breitbart News that she is personally signing investigations — the primary time a secretary has completed so in American historical past.
“We are deploying each software on the division’s disposal to root out H-1B visa abuse and safeguard high-skilled American jobs,” Chavez-DeRemer advised Breitbart News. “I’m dedicated to making sure accountability throughout the H-1B course of, which is why I’m personally certifying investigations. President Trump has made it clear that American employees come first, and we are going to fulfill that mission.”
For years, Breitbart News has chronicled the widespread abuse and fraud throughout the H-1B visa program, the place firms repeatedly lay off American professionals after forcing them to coach their international H-1B visa replacements, who arrive overwhelmingly from India, with little-to-no penalties from federal investigators.
India and China have dominated the H-1B visa program for many years.
In 2024, greater than 7-in-10 H-1B visas authorised by the federal authorities went to Indian nationals who’re additionally predominantly male. Those Americans changed by international H-1B visa employees are sometimes older, together with many ladies, and revel in seniority of their positions and good advantages packages.
Chavez-DeRemer stated DOL has a minimum of 175 ongoing investigations after saying the fraud and abuse enforcement initiative “Project Firewall” in September.
When saying the initiative, Chavez-DeRemer highlighted the administration’s “dedication to finish practices that depart Americans within the mud” shortly after President Donald Trump signed a proclamation authorizing companies to “scale back fraud and exclude international employees from the career-starting jobs wanted by gifted U.S. graduates.”
Trump’s proclamation additionally notably imposed a $100,000 one-time price on H-1B visa petitions.
In the six weeks following the late September launch of Project Firewall, officers with the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) stated they’ve discovered:
- Foreign H-1B visa employees employed at far decrease wages than their American counterparts
- Cases the place the job areas for employed international H-1B visa employees didn’t exist
- H-1B employers failing to inform federal officers when the visa was terminated
Despite some international H-1B visa hires having superior levels, WHD investigators stated firms have been paying them at wage charges far beneath their {qualifications}, forcing Americans to additionally settle for these decrease charges to compete within the skilled workforce.
In a number of the investigations the place the job location was pretend, the international H-1B visa employees additionally didn’t know what the work described of their Labor Condition Application (LCA) was, though they signed as much as do it.
The open instances signify over $15 million in owed again wages to employees, with the WHD anticipating this determine to develop as extra instances of fraud and abuse are uncovered. Companies discovered abusing the H-1B visa program must pay these again wages as a part of their settlements with the Labor Department.
While DOL officers couldn’t launch names of firms and people concerned in H-1B visa fraud presently, extra info is anticipated when investigations are finalized.
Years of study of presidency information have proven that U.S. firms use the H-1B visa program as an outsourcing scheme that begins with shedding their American staff, importing their international replacements, after which, years later, offshoring the job altogether to, sometimes, India.
Just final yr, main H-1B visa researcher Ron Hira revealed a examine for the Economic Policy Institute that reviewed wage information from HCL Technologies, India’s third-largest outsourcing agency, whose shoppers embody Microsoft, Disney, Boeing, FedEx, Google, T-Mobile, and Keurig Dr. Pepper, amongst others.
The outcomes of the examine have been surprising, however not shocking to longtime H-1B critics.
“H-1B employees each employed in India and within the U.S. are proven to be vastly underpaid in contrast with their U.S. citizen and everlasting resident counterparts not employed with H-1B visas,” the analysis discovered. “… based on HCL’s personal calculations, the agency systematically pays H-1B employees a lot lower than its U.S. employees — as a lot as 47% — contravening HCL’s attestations in its visa functions the place it guarantees to pay the precise wage whether it is greater than the prevailing wage.”
The examine discovered that HCL Tech saves a minimum of $95 million a yr by paying its H-1B visa workforce far lower than their American counterparts.
Similar analysis revealed within the Journal of Business Ethics final yr uncovered that British multinational company Deloitte paid international H-1B visa employees about 10 p.c lower than Americans doing the identical line of labor.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based mostly in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter right here.
