Vance is drawing a firm line on the H-1B visa program, arguing that it must benefit the American economy rather than give companies a vehicle for replacing U.S. workers with foreigners willing to accept lower wages, as reported [1] by The Gateway Pundit.
In a short video posted to his official X account, Vance stated his position plainly.
“The H-1B should not exist to replace American workers with low-wage foreigners. It should exist to enrich the American economy .”
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 [2]
— Vice President JD Vance (@VP) September 27, 2026 [3]
His remarks come as President Donald Trump continues pressing changes intended to ensure that the visa program supplements the domestic workforce instead of displacing it.
The White House has backed that approach with entry restrictions, a substantial payment requirement, and greater attention to layoffs affecting Americans in similar jobs.
Earlier this month, Trump extended a proclamation targeting certain H-1B workers for another year.
The proclamation restricts entry for covered workers who remain overseas unless the petition submitted for them includes a $100,000 payment.
The payment requirement is subject to narrow national interest exceptions. The restriction focuses on certain workers who are outside the United States, rather than every person connected to an H-1B petition.
Trump also signed an executive order directing the secretaries of State, Labor, and Homeland Security to consider recent or planned layoffs of similar American workers.
That consideration applies when officials review labor condition applications, petitions, and visas.
The order describes the program as something Congress created to bring uniquely skilled people into the country.
Those workers were intended to supplement the U.S. labor market, according to the order, not become a cheaper substitute for Americans already capable of doing the work.
The order also says outsourcing operations have used H-1B to place cheaper employees onshore before sending the work back out.
That practice sits at the heart of Vance’s criticism that the program should enrich the country rather than facilitate the replacement of American workers.
White House figures indicate that the $100,000 fee produced a sharp change among the largest information technology staffing and outsourcing firms.
During the first year of the fee, their combined H-1B registrations fell from 24,946 to 2,055.
That represented a 92% decline, according to the White House.
The dramatic reduction offers a clear numerical picture of how registrations from those major staffing and outsourcing companies changed after the fee took effect.
Consular requests to bring workers into the United States from abroad also plunged. Those requests fell nearly 97% between the FY 2025 and FY 2027 cap seasons.
At the same time, registrations involving people with at least a U.S. master’s degree rose substantially. They accounted for 45.1% of FY 2026 registrants and increased to 66.1% for FY 2027.
The wage figures also showed a greater share of selections associated with the upper wage levels.
Selections connected to the two highest wage levels reached 46.3%, while the lowest wage level accounted for 17.8%.
The White House fact sheet additionally highlighted unemployment among recent graduates in computer-related fields before the 2025 proclamation.
Unemployment stood at 6.1% among recent computer science graduates and 7.5% among recent computer engineering graduates.
Together, the proclamation, executive order, and White House figures frame the policy argument Vance presented in his video.
His standard is straightforward: H-1B should add value to the American economy, not provide an avenue for companies to substitute lower-wage foreign labor for American workers.