Washington DC [US], October 30: US Vice President JD Vance has yet again
defended President Donald Trump’s reforms to the H-1B visa programme, arguing
that the current system is being misused to undercut American workers’ wages by
importing talent at discounted rates.
Speaking at the Turning Point USA Event in Mississippi on Wednesday (October 29, 2025), Vance said the administration’s push for H-1B reform was aimed at ensuring fairness for US
workers and restoring the visa’s original purpose–to retain top global talent, not replace domestic labor with cheaper alternatives.
“Legal immigration is complicated because we let in about a million legal immigrants
into the United States of America every single year. And the evidence is pretty clear
that a lot of those immigrants are actually undercutting the wages of American
workers,” Vance said.
“It’s one of the reasons why the President of the United States and a lot of us in the
administration have encouraged H-1B reform,” he added.
Explaining the intent behind the program, Vance said, “If you look at the H-1B
visa, what it’s supposed to be is that you have a super genius who’s studying at an
American university and who’s working at a great company. You want that super
genius to stay in the United States of America and not go somewhere else. What it’s
actually used to do is hire an accountant at a 50 per cent discount for an American
citizen. I don’t think that we should be hiring accountants from foreign countries when
we’ve got accountants right here in the United States that would love to work for a
good wage.”
Vance’s comments come amid escalating debate over the proclamation that will
trigger a major overhaul of the H-1B visa petition, signed by Trump in September.
According to the proclamation, there will now be a $100,000 fee for new H-1B
visa applications, a sharp increase from the previous level of about $1,500.
According to the US State Department, the new fee requirement applies only to
individuals or companies filing new H-1B petitions or entering the H-1B lottery after
September 21.
Current visa holders and petitions submitted before that date remain unaffected.
Under the proclamation, a $100,000 payment must accompany every new H-1B
visa petition filed after the deadline, including those submitted for entries in the 2026
lottery.
The Vice President also underscored the administration’s broader goal of reducing
overall immigration numbers, saying that the current volume of legal and illegal
entrants was unsustainable.
“There are people who want to come to the United States of America, and some of
them I’m sure can enrich the United States of America by coming here, but we have
got to get our overall numbers way down. Too many people have come into the
United States of America,” he said.