WATCH: Vance Says H-1B Must Enrich America, Not Swap Out U.S. Workers for Cheap Foreign Labor

Vice President JD Vance posted a video on Sunday defending the administration’s H-1B fight.

In the short clip, posted to his official X account, Vance asserted, “The H-1B should not exist to replace American workers with low-wage foreigners. It should exist to enrich the American economy.”

WATCH:

Vice President Vance on the Trump Administration’s H1B visa reforms:

“The H-1B should not exist to replace American workers with low-wage foreigners. It should exist to enrich the American economy.” pic.twitter.com/7bunZ97u5Z

— Vice President JD Vance (@VP) September 27, 2026

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump extended for another year a proclamation that restricts entry for certain H-1B workers who are still overseas unless the petition includes a $100,000 payment, subject to narrow national-interest exceptions.

Trump also signed an executive order telling the secretaries of State, Labor, and Homeland Security to consider recent or planned layoffs of similar American workers when reviewing labor condition applications, petitions, and visas.

The order says Congress built H-1B to bring in uniquely skilled people who supplement the U.S. labor market, and that outsourcing shops have used it to park cheaper staff onshore and then send the work back out.

According to the White House, in the first year of the fee, the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms cut combined H-1B registrations from 24,946 to 2,055, a 92 percent drop.

Consular requests used to fly workers in from abroad fell nearly 97 percent between the FY 2025 and FY 2027 cap seasons.

Registrations for people with at least a U.S. master’s degree rose from 45.1 percent of FY 2026 registrants to 66.1 percent for FY 2027.

Selections tied to the two highest wage levels reached 46.3 percent. The lowest wage level was 17.8 percent.

The same fact sheet notes that before the 2025 proclamation, unemployment among recent computer science graduates was 6.1 percent and 7.5 percent for computer engineering graduates.