JD Vance Press Conference on Fighting Visa Fraud — October 8, 2026

00:04Editorial summary: An event announcer introduced Vice President JD Vance at the White House briefing. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. Good morning. Thank you all.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States00:23Well, good morning to the press and good morning to all the people who've worked so hard on this. This is a great day for American workers because we are taking some very concrete actions to cut down on some of the H-1B and J1 visa fraud that we've been tracking over the past several months.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States00:37I want to give a particular shout out to Andrew Ferguson, Steven Miller, and of course Todd Blanch, our great attorney general, who are standing behind me. Uh, a particular shout out to DO Secretary Keith Sonderling, who's been really an amazing partner in the anti-fraud task force.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States00:52Thanks to Keith's hard work, we've uncovered about $20 billion dollar in fraud just within uh his his department and secured over 200 convictions in the last 5 months alone. So Keith has been one of our real allstars on the anti-fraud task force.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States01:04And of course the IGF do Anthony Desposito all of them will speak and then you guys can ask us a few questions. But here here's the basic problem something that we've been working towards fixing in the Trump administration for a long time.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States01:17The H-1B visa program is meant to allow companies to bring in really the best of the best from outside the United States of America for positions that are completely impossible to fill with American workers.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States01:30Unfortunately, the program has become rife with fraud over the last several years, probably the last several decades. And here's the basic game that American corporations and foreign corporations will play. They will say, maybe they'll put an advertisement in a small town newspaper.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States01:46They'll go out there and say that we have advertised for a position with our company and nobody is responding to it. And they will use that lack of a response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States01:59And I'll get into that in a second. But these are not people who are coming into the United States of America, these H-1B visas, with the full rights of an American citizen or an American employee.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States02:08They're coming in and being mistreated by their employers and being used to undercut the wages of American workers. Now, there are two ways this system fundamentally works. The H-1B visa is how the people get into the United States in the first place, and then a PERM program is how those employees stay.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States02:25So, after a couple of cycles of H-1B uh reapplication, the the companies will then apply for a perm, a PERM, which will allow the employee to stay, get a green card, and potentially stay in the United States indefinitely.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States02:40So if the H-1B visa is how people come into the country, the PERM program is how they stay in the United States to begin with. Now there has been no company in the United States unfortunately that has abused the system more than Microsoft.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States02:53And let me just give you a couple of statistics on this. So in the last year, Microsoft and I want to be clear about the data here. So let me check this. But Microsoft laid off last year 6,000 6,000 American workers.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States03:08At the same time, the company benefited from 6,300 H1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. In other words, if you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with 1 and a half foreign indentured servants.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States03:23Now, that is a scandalous system that we've allowed in this country for far too long. But thanks to the work of this task force and thanks to the empowerment of the president of the United States, we are going to stop it because thanks to an ongoing investigation, we have decided to suspend the PERM program for Microsoft, which means they will no longer be able to apply uh their those they'll no longer be able to take those H-1Bs and apply for permanent resident status within the United States of America.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States03:50Now, our message to Microsoft and to any other foreign or domestic corporation is quite simple. We obviously want you to thrive in the United States of America. We want people to invest in the United States of America, particularly the American technology sector.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States04:03We are the biggest boosters of your industry. We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers. And so our message to Microsoft is you're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States04:18You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indur servants. And I want to talk a little bit about that. When I say indentured servants, here's what I mean. When somebody comes in on an H-1B, they are completely they're completely subordinate to that company.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States04:35If they lose that job, they have to leave the country. So if you think of the the basic idea of an American constitutional republic where we bring people in who are fair and equal citizens of the United States of America, they are not controlled by their employer.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States04:48But you bring people in and you basically tell them that if they get out of line, if they get too uppidity at work, they're not just going to lose their job, but they're going to be deported back to their country of residence.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States04:58Those people are not full citizens. And that's why those people are earning wages that are far below the average for American citizens. The the the second thing I want to say about that is this fraud is facilitated not just by the companies themselves, but in some ways is facilitated by these foreign outsourcing firms.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States05:16These firms that help corporations apply and find H-1B visa candidates. They're commonly called the witches, the four major outsourcing firms. And these firms are as complicit or maybe more so complicit in the visa fraud than any American corporation.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States05:34And here is the basic data. If you are working as an H-1B visa in the United States of America, you're earning $20,000 less than an American citizen hired in the same position. If you were brought in by one of these foreign outsourcing firms, you're making $48,000 less than an American citizen in a similar position.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States05:54So, I'm sure that everybody here understands the game that is being played. You bring in indentured servants from outside the country. You lay off American workers. And if you're a corporation, you make a ton of money by undercutting the wages of American workers, replacing them with people who frankly shouldn't be in the United States of America to begin with.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States06:12Uh this is a terribly pernitious system. It's gone on for too long. And we'd all encourage, by the way, Congress to do something about it. But there are things within our authority under the law, our regulatory authority as administration to fix this problem.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States06:28And that's exactly what we're going to do. I want to make one final announcement here because while we see a lot of H-1B visa fraud, we also see a lot of J1 visa fraud.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States06:35And this is where some of America's most elite universities bring in foreigners again to undercut the wages of American residents. Now, there are nine universities in particular that we believe merit an investigation. Those universities are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State, and MIT.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States06:57And what we see is that when you employ an American worker as a graduate student, as a researcher, they're making about $20,000 more than someone brought in under a J1 visa. And importantly, these universities are employing J1 visas for federally funded grants at a rate of about 61%.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States07:14The national average is 38%. So something weird is going on at these universities. They're using these visas way too much. They're using them to undercut the wages of American grad students and American researchers. and it simply has to stop.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States07:30Let me make one final point before I turn it over to Keith. This is a fundamental insult to the American worker and to the American way of life. We cannot allow visa programs that were designed to ensure that American corporations had access to the best and the brightest to use them to undercut the wages of American workers.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States07:48Now, it's one thing if you want to bring in a person like Elon Musk, I think 99% of American citizens look at somebody like Elon Musk or Lisa Sue, uh, the CEO of AMD, and they say, obviously, if that person wants to come in and build something great in the United States of America, we support that.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States08:05But if you're bringing in an accountant who's making $40,000 a year and you use that foreign indentured servant making $40,000 a year to replace an American worker who was making $70,000 a year, you're not bringing in a genius to build a great American corporation.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States08:20You're committing fraud against the American people and against this visa program. It has to stop. And thanks to the work of this task force and again the empowerment of the president of the United States, we are doing something to stop it.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States08:31I again would encourage Congress to reform this program. It is very clear that it's not working the way that it should, but we have tools in the administration to make this program work better for the American people.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States08:44A lot more we could do if Congress was willing to play ball. And again, we extend an invitation to both Democrats and Republicans. If you want the H-1B visa program to stop being used to defraud the American taxpayer and to undercut the wages of American workers, get to work and we will help you.

09:01But we're going to do everything that we can in the interimm to ensure the program works as it was designed to work. And with that, I want to turn it over to our great labor secretary, Keith.

09:10Take it away. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. task force members for the amazing work we do together. Because of this task force, the Department of Labor has uncovered $22 billion in visa fraud.

Keith Sonderling, U.S. Secretary of Labor09:23But today, we are protecting something far more valuable than any dollar amount. We are protecting the American worker. The Department of Labor is taking historic action by shutting down the pipeline of systemic fraud.

Keith Sonderling, U.S. Secretary of Labor09:39The fraud that has flooded our country with foreign labor at the expense of American workers. It begins with universities and companies that have turned into visa mills, promoting foreign workers that have lied about their qualifications to take jobs from our beloved American workers.

Keith Sonderling, U.S. Secretary of Labor09:55But these foreign workers aren't coming here just for the job. Employers have enabled this pipeline through fraud, putting foreign labor ahead of American workers. And the fraud doesn't end with getting the job. That job becomes a pathway for foreign workers and their families to stay in America permanently and eventually becoming US citizens.

Keith Sonderling, U.S. Secretary of Labor10:19And who pays for it all? The American worker. This administration knows that American workers are the best and brightest in the world. These jobs that were stolen from them um should have gone and will now go to Americans first, not foreigners and especially not foreign fraudsters.

Keith Sonderling, U.S. Secretary of Labor10:37And today, thanks to President Trump, Vice President, and the task force, we are cutting off the head of the snake. The companies that have enabled this abuse for decades due to ongoing criminal investigations led by the Department of Labor's Inspector General Anthony Dspazito, who will get into this shortly.

Keith Sonderling, U.S. Secretary of Labor10:56I am hereby suspending from the permanent labor certification program some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world. Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Whipro, HCL, and Capgeemini. And also due to multiple active federal investigations, the Department of Labor suspending Microsoft and Adobe from the program.

Keith Sonderling, U.S. Secretary of Labor11:17So what does this mean? We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies. Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers.

Keith Sonderling, U.S. Secretary of Labor11:35They've received over 230,000 H1B visas approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. That's hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers. Our historic action is the first critical step to stop the fraud and the abuse and ensure that these programs never come at the expense of the American worker.

Keith Sonderling, U.S. Secretary of Labor12:00Under President Trump's leadership and thanks to Vice President Vance and this task force, we are ending the fraud that has fueled reliance on foreign labor. President Trump's Department of Labor will ensure that American businesses now look first to the most talented workforce in the world, and that's the American worker.

12:16Thank you. And now I invite Attorney General Blanch to the stage. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. confirmation. So th this announcement today should send and does send a strong signal to every single employer in the United States that the Trump administration will not tolerate discrimination against American workers.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General12:44For too long, employers have engaged in tactics, as as you've just heard from the vice president and secretary Sanderling, to protect and in some cases prefer foreign workers for all types of job opportunities.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General12:55These practices have shut American workers out of the economy of their own country and have made it more difficult for both recent college graduates and also experienced experienced workers to get a a fair shake at the employment market and a fair wage.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General13:11But no longer. I want to thank thank the the Department of Justice, the folks that work in the in the Civil Rights Division and the Department of Labor and their IG's office. You're going to hear from the inspector general in a moment.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General13:22And also um the the other members of the task force that have worked so hard over the past several months to get where we are today. Uh and and just let me make clear if it's not clear that the the Department of Justice, my department is actively investigating companies that do this that favor foreign workers over the American people.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General13:40The American people have spoken loud and clear. If a company, even including Microsoft, Adobe, or any other, discriminates against an American worker in favor of someone on the other side of the world, that company has violated the trust of the federal government and the American people and will be investigated.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General14:01This issue has affected Americans across generations, but it's especially important to young people with a lot of talent who can't find a job because their potential employer may be engaging in these sort of improper and nefarious practices.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General14:15I want to thank the vice president and secretary Sanderling for the leadership on this issue. It's an honor to be a part of the administration that takes this issue seriously. The issue of foreign labor favoritism is something that nobody should ignore and we at the Department of Justice will continue to do our part to make sure that doesn't happen.

14:33Thank you very much. I'll now turn it over to to Steven Miller. Thank you very much. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. Vice President for your leadership, not only on this issue, but the entire body of work the fraud task force has done.

Stephen Miller, White House official14:53Since President Trump launched the fraud task force and put the vice president in charge, our worst nightmares about the fraud that had been taking place in this country were exceeded. Fraud that has been going on for years, decades, in some cases generations.

Stephen Miller, White House official15:08Vice President Vance and his team have exposed historic volumes of food stamp fraud, daycare fraud, Medicaid fraud, healthc care fraud, social security fraud, every kind of fraud you can imagine that steals from and betrays American families and workers.

Stephen Miller, White House official15:26Today is no different. What the task force and its partners in law enforcement have uncovered is systemic immigration fraud that violates the laws and statutes of the United States to undercut American workers and labor.

Stephen Miller, White House official15:38The H1B program and the PERM program that's attached to it have explicit statutory commands that must be followed. It requires individuals, for example, to have a unique, highly specialized occupation as one example. And yet in case after case after case, we see individuals that are being brought into the country for skills that are not specialized, that are not unique, and that are not skilled, that are doing work that is currently being done by American workers, but a vastly lower pay.

Stephen Miller, White House official16:11If you go back a few decades in this country, this was an issue that was covered commonly by our media. In fact, there's a a famous special that was done by Mike Wallace at CBS probably almost 30 years ago now when this program was first starting documenting and detailing these abuses.

Stephen Miller, White House official16:26If you remember in 2015 when President Trump first campaigned for president, he had at his rallies American workers in good paying middle class jobs with pensions who were laid off and forced to train their foreign replacements as the condition of their severance.

Stephen Miller, White House official16:41A phenomenon that is widespread and well documented. And again, because of this task force, this kind of unlawful conduct has been exposed, detailed, documented, and resulted in real concrete federal action. I think one of the important things that I would like everyone to take home today is that America is blessed with some of the most exceptional talent that has ever existed in the history of the world.

Stephen Miller, White House official17:07Homegrown American talent. This has been true since the day our country was founded. Go back to the Wright brothers and the journey into the skies. The industrial base that powered us through World War II.

Stephen Miller, White House official17:20The genius of American space flight and aviation. Homegrown American talent has been at the center of one revolution after another. As the vice president said, we always welcome and bring to this country individuals who have exceptional gifts to share with our country.

Stephen Miller, White House official17:38But what we don't do and can't do is crush and kill the dreams of millions of young children in middle school and high school who want that first step in the ladder but are unable to get it.

Stephen Miller, White House official17:49Or mid-career workers who've dedicated their lives to a company and are given two weeks notice just because someone else somewhere in the world is willing to do the job 20 30 40 50% cheaper than they are.

Stephen Miller, White House official18:01And a lot of the reason why they can do it so much cheaper is they are able to then go back to their home countries in the future and if they're living in a country where the average salary is $2 a day or $3 a day, taking half of an American worker salary is still a raise in their home country.

Stephen Miller, White House official18:19The last thing I want to say is that there's been a lot of attention given to how President Trump has secured the southern border of the United States, which is the most significant security achievement in American history.

Stephen Miller, White House official18:30In other words, the most open border to the most secure border in the span of days. Nothing has equal that since this country was founded in terms of a security achievement. But what President Trump has done to fix and reform the immigration system more broadly is equally as astonishing and impressive.

Stephen Miller, White House official18:46He completely fixed and repaired the refugee program. He battled the issue of visa overstays for the first time ever and it and created the program all throughout the world to ensure people are abiding by and obeying the rules of their stay.

Stephen Miller, White House official18:59He cracked down for the first time ever on birth tourism, something that has been a a scourge and an embarrassment for years. He dealt with the issue of immigration from terrorist havens and dangerous nations with the travel bans and travel restrictions.

Stephen Miller, White House official19:14He's applied the public charge standard for the first time ever to ensure people who are coming to this country are not going to be seeking or relying on welfare. He's dealt with systemic fraud across every different visa program that exists.

Stephen Miller, White House official19:25Generations of work done in less than two years. So that it is true today that under President Trump, America is the only country in the world that has managed to turn an immigration system from being against its people to for its people. and in particular in the western world where this has been simmering for a long time.

19:47President Trump is the only western leader to deliver for the citizens of this country an immigration system that puts them first. No other western leader has done this. President Trump stands alone. I now love to have Mr. Daspazito, the Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General20:08Thank you very much, Stephen, and thank you for your leadership and commitment. Under President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, fraud is no longer being dismissed as an accounting error. Fraud is a crime.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General20:20Fraud steals American jobs. Fraud fuels violence. Fraud threatens our national security. President Trump and Vice President Vance understand that protecting America means standing behind the men and women who wear the uniform, giving them the resources to do their jobs, and letting cops be cops.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General20:41Alongside my partner, Secretary Keith Sonderling, I am announcing a historic investigation into the J1 visa fraud involving nine major American universities. Pitt, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Brown, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State, and MIT. Subpoenas have been served, investigations are underway, and nobody will be getting a free pass because their name is carved into an expensive building.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General21:15Improperly used J1 visa classifications to a avoid employment obligations exploit taxpayer funded programs and undermine American workers will not be tolerated. Approximately 61% post-doal researchers and federally funded workers at these institutions are foreign nationals.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General21:39American taxpayers send billions of dollars to these universities to support research and innovation. They deserve to know where that money is be where it's going and whether it's being used lawfully. And China, the Chinese Communist Party doesn't need to kick down the doors of America's research laboratories if our own institutions are willing to leave the doors wide open.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General22:07China is not simply an economic competitor. The Chinese Communist Party is a sophisticated adversary actively targeting American technology, intellectual property, and national security interests. We will investigate whether foreign influence, improper financial relationships, or visa abuse are compromising federally funded research.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General22:27If an American university is breaking the law to save a dollar while exposing American research to a foreign adversary, that is not academic excellence. It's institutional betrayal. Let me make something else crystal clear.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General22:42I spent a career as an NYPD detective. I worked the streets of Brooklyn investigating violent criminals who thought that they were untouchable. I did not back down then and I sure as hell will not back down now.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General22:57I don't care how prestigious a university thinks it is. Break the law and screw the American people and I will personally cuff you in the university square. I don't care how large your end endowment is, how powerful your alumni are, or how many politicians you have on speed dial.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General23:16As Vice President Vance said, nobody is above the law. That's why we're establishing a visa fraud strike team, bringing together investigative expertise from across government. We will follow the money, uncover the schemes, and work with Attorney General Todd Blanch to prosecute criminals.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General23:31We are also launching a Labor Inspector General most wanted fraudster list featuring 16 criminals who have stolen nearly a half a billion dollars from Americans. To those fugitives, as AG Blanch's team has said, they will find you anywhere on this planet.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General23:51And our results speak for themselves. Since Vice President Vance's task force to eliminate fraud was established, our investigations have contributed to 171 indictments, 203 convictions, 80 arrests, more than 70 search warrants, and over a billion dollars identified for the taxpayers.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General24:10And we're just getting started. During my time wearing an NYPD shield, I learned that crime doesn't happen in a vacuum. Fraud doesn't end with a stolen dollar. That dollar can become a gun in someone's hand, narcotics that kill, a payment to a human trafficker, or resources for a foreign en enemy.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General24:27That's why we're investigating the connections between fraud, organized crime, forced labor, human trafficking, and threats to national security. President Trump and Vice President Vance have unleashed the resources, empowered law enforcement, and made it clear that protecting American workers and taxpayers is a national priority.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General24:46To the hardworking men of the hardworking men and women of the Labor Inspector General's office, you have my full support and we will give you every tool you need to get the job done.

Anthony D'Esposito, U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General24:58Anyone exploiting our immigration system, stealing taxpayer dollars, or compromising American security, your university's reputation will not protect you. Your political connections will not protect you. Your money will not protect you. The only thing that matters is the evidence that we will bring to prosecutions.

25:19President Trump demands America first. And we, this task force, is delivering. No amount too small, no fraud too large, and absolutely no institution above the law. And now it's Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair25:38fraud, Andrew Ferguson. Morning. America is not a jobs program for the rest of the world. We didn't build our institutions for the rest of the world. We built them for Americans. our rule of law, our system of sane and sound regulation, our capital markets, our justice system.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair25:58Everything that makes the American economy thrive. We did not build for the planet. We built it for us. We built it for Americans first. The fraud described today denies Americans that institution. And that is what the fraud that the task force has spent the last nine months uncovering has consistently done.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair26:16It denies Americans of their own patrimony. Benefits fraud denies Americans their Medicaid and Medicare benefits. SNAP takes the food out of the mouths of children. CDL fraud denies Americans a safe road. Immigration fraud denies the Americans the right to decide who will be citizens, fellow citizens of their country.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair26:36And this fraud denies Americans their just wage, a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance. That is why this task force is so important. Fraud of every kind is a frontal assault on every institution that Americans hold dear.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair26:52And if we do not confront it, those institutions will keep eroding. Our benefits programs will disappear. Americans will lose their livelihoods. Our roads will be unsafe. Crime will continue to rise. Only President Trump and Vice President Vance have ever taken these problems seriously.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair27:07They have deployed the entire federal government to stop it. And that is ultimately what this is today. This is protecting institutions that Americans built for Americans and preserving them for Americans. That is why this announcement is so huge.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair27:22I also want to acknowledge the work of Andrea Lucas who's the chairman of the EEOC. She is the greatest chairman of that institution since Clarence Thomas back in the 1980s on every issue that previous EOCC's EEOC's refused to touch. protecting white American men from discrimination, protecting American citizens from national origin discrimination.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair27:42She has led the EEOC headlong to defend Americans from these abusive practices. She has been an incredibly valuable partner of the task force. I know she's been a very valuable partner of the Department of Justice and we are thrilled to work with her on these issues.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair27:58And with that, I will return it to the vice president. So let me just echo what Andrew just said about Andrea Lucas and of course Harme Dylan who have been amazing partners in this work and it wouldn't be impossible without them.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair28:09We finally have an administration and Department of Justice led by Todd Blanch who are taking seriously that American citizens have rights in their own country. It sounds like a novel concept but for so long we sent a message to people whether they were white or male or the wrong national origin.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair28:25We said that we weren't going to defend your rights if you looked the wrong way or you didn't belong to the right category. No more in this administration. And that's because of the hard work of Har Dylan and Andrea Lucas.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair28:36And let me make one final point. There's this pernicious idea and Steven alluded to it, which is that Americans are not good enough for the jobs in their own country. You hear people say that in subtle ways and sometimes explicit ways.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair28:51When people say that Americans won't work on farms or they won't work in certain dirty jobs, what they're really saying is that Americans won't work in those jobs for poverty wages, nor should they.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair29:01When you hear people say that we have to bring in foreign accountants because there aren't enough American accountants, what they're saying is that there aren't enough people who can do math in the United States of America, which is absurd.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair29:13When people say we need to bring in foreign IT specialists and quite literally force people to train their own replacements, what we're saying is that there are Americans who cannot do those jobs. And that is absurd.

Andrew Ferguson, White House anti-fraud task force co-chair29:24To the American people, this visa fraud is a frontal assault on the idea that you deserve to inherit the jobs and the positions in your own country. Never believe the lie that Americans are not good enough to build a future for Americans.

29:42That's what visa fraud tells you. It is a lie and the president of the United States does not stand for it and neither does anybody on this stage. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

29:57Editorial summary: A journalist asked about criticism of Microsoft at the visa briefing and the planned science and technology award for its chief executive. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States30:14great American company and we have a great relationship with them. They do a lot of important things. They also laid off 6,000 American workers while replacing them with 6,300 H1Bs. And our message to Microsoft is not that we want to harm your company.

30:28It's that we want your c company to thrive, but we want it to thrive by employing and empowering your fellow Americans. So, we're going to continue to support Microsoft and have a great relationship with Microsoft, but we're also going to deny them the ability to apply for these permanent residencies until they show that they are going to get serious about putting American workers first.

30:52Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. Editorial summary: Journalists pressed administration officials about enforcement, investigations and whether further corporate action was expected. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

32:12Editorial summary: An administration official discussed possible enforcement action; the captured automatic captions do not independently establish the precise speaker identity in this short exchange. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

32:27Editorial summary: A reporter asked the Vice President about employer practices and the effect of the labor visa system on U.S. wages. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States32:43profitable lie because if you're an American corporation and you're paying an accountant in Southern California $70,000 a year, but you have an opportunity to replace that accountant with a foreign worker making $40,000 a year, then you can make a lot of money by telling American workers that they're not good enough.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States32:59And that's why we have to push back against this lie. Americans are good enough to inherit the great things about their country. Americans are good enough to build the future in this great country.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States33:10We cannot allow both either foreign or domestic companies to send a message to the American people that they're not good enough for their own nation because when they do, it pads their profits. It depresses the American spirit of camaraderie and self-determination.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States33:25It's a terrible deal for American workers and we're putting a stop to it. And then go ahead and ask your question, Todd. to the attorney general uh just about sort of accountability and repercussions for anybody that are breaking these rules.

33:38Uh Mr. Dspazito mentioned cuffs which everybody smiled at. Um will there be arrests? Uh or what will the penalties Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General33:48yes, there are criminal laws that make a lot of this conduct um not only illegal but but a violation of the criminal laws. And so and and I do think that there are times when when whether it's an institution or leadership within an institution where they they they are able to avoid criminal liability because of a settlement or something like this.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General34:05And and and there are other times when the Department of Justice does need to um go forward and and ultimately whether it's indicting individuals, leaders, people that that were part of it or or going after the institutions or companies that were doing it.

Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney General34:17So yes, that's the way investigations work. I I can't forecast one in particular, but absolutely what the IG said is exactly right that this is you have to that you know it's empty threats are just that they're empty.

34:29So unless we're actually going to come through and and and whether it's prosecutions, whether it's civil suits to to get the money back and stop the conduct, yes, of course we're going to do that.

34:39Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. Editorial summary: Questions concerned the duration of the labor certification suspensions and the administration's wider assessment of the economy. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States35:09of PERM is going to last as long as it needs to. uh we have a number of tools to suspend it indefinitely, but we we actually want these companies to change their behavior, improve their behavior, and actually get better.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States35:18That's the goal here. We're not just punishing them to punish them. We're punishing them because we want them to change their behavior. Uh this, by the way, is something it applies to Adobe, but it could apply to a number of other technology companies as well.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States35:28Stop defrauding the American worker. Stop importing an indentured servant to do a job that an American worker would happily do. They're just not going to do it for poverty wages. That's the message that we're sending and obviously we have a number of enforcement tools to continue to drive that message home.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States35:43You know, to your question about um the economy, you have to remember Caitlyn that we inherited the worst inflation crisis in 48 years in the United States of America. Uh we have seen $19 trillion of new investment come.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States35:57We've seen a manufacturing boom. We've seen a factory construction boom in the United States of America. Uh we've seen a lot of companies, technology companies and otherwise who are reinvesting and re-industrializing the United States of America.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States36:10Does some of those benefits take time to fully, you know, it takes time to build a factory. It takes time to hire the people who are going to work in the factory. But what we've seen the president do is really reverse 40 years of economic and industrial stagnation in the United States of America.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States36:25I think it's going to completely recharge the American economy. you're already seeing great benefits, but I I I I you know, we're going to see a lot more benefits come in the months and years ahead.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States36:34And the final point on that is one of the reasons why I think we deserve an A+ from the American worker is because we're finally cutting down on the fraud that's depriving them of good wages and good jobs.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States36:47This program has been defrauded for generations in the United States of America. I mean, one of the the most heart-wrenching stories I've ever read was a story about an IT worker, I believe in California, who had to train his foreign replacement in order, as Steven said, to get his severance package.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States37:05And then he left his job completely emisserated, lacking his his sense of self and a sense of purpose, and he committed suicide the very day that he left his job having replaced his foreign replacement.

37:17This is not how you treat fellow citizens in a constitutional republic. and we're stopping it. And that's one of the reasons why I think we deserve great marks for the American worker. Jen, Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

37:35Editorial summary: A journalist raised an allegation involving an American diplomat and access to officials. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. Editorial summary: A reporter questioned the administration's immigration enforcement approach and fees for skilled worker visas.

38:52Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. and have done this for a long time successfully, but also as others have talked about with a lot of fraud.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States39:00We ask a very basic question. Number one, does a person coming in fill a position that simply cannot be filled by an American worker? That's question number one. Question number two, very importantly, is this person a truly elite human being?

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States39:15Are they truly bringing in a special set of skills and abilities and work ethic and competence? Unfortunately, what we see with most H-1Bs is that you're taking somebody, I'm sure in most cases, a decent human being, and they're using them to replace an American middle class worker.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States39:30Um, you know, Elon Musk obviously has done a lot of great things. We want a lot of other people to come into the United States of America if they have truly elite specialized skills.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States39:41But that's not what the H-1B visa program has become. It's become a program of taking, for example, an accountant making a nice middle class wage and replacing them with a foreign indentured servant who's making something closer to poverty wages.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States39:53That is a scandal. And the fact that they're undercutting the wages of American workers is a big tell that they don't have a hyper specialized skill. You know, one of the things I'm proudest of that we've done on the H-1B program, we did it early on.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States40:06Stephen and I works very closely on this, is that we said we wanted to impose a fee on the H-1B application process. And the thought there is very clear. If you're actually bringing a truly elite genius level, super specialized person into the United States of America, you're going to be willing to pay a little bit extra to bring that person into the into your company.

40:26But if you're just bringing in somebody who's going to undercut the wages of the American worker, which is what most H-1Bs are today, then you shouldn't bring that that person in. We should actually prioritize our workers Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain.

40:41Editorial summary: A journalist asked about immigration and the consequences of labor competition for American workers. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. it's honestly it's a hard term to to define these days because very often socialism, you know, classically you would think socialism is about prioritizing workers.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States41:03And yet in reality, I guarantee that most of the self-described socialists running across the United States of America are going to howl about this announcement today, which is prioritizing American workers over foreign workers.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States41:13So, I don't know what the term means anymore. I think in reality, what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers and you want boys to play in girls sports.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States41:25That's what unites the socialists that I see running across the United States of America today. You know, it's it's funny. Back in 2016, one of the most interesting things that happened is when Bernie Sanders, then of course the leading socialist in the United States of America, was asked about open borders.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States41:41He gave an answer that sounded similar to Steven Miller's where he said, "Of course we're not going to have open borders because that's going to displace American workers." It is ironic that so many of the self-described socialists running across this country, they love the idea of replacing American workers with foreign workers, which suggests to me it's really not about the working class.

42:01It's about their hatred of native-born citizens. Right. I saw real clear over here. Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. Editorial summary: A journalist sought clarification on the specific kinds of fraud targeted by the announcement.

42:27Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. of the fraud is fundamentally that when you apply for these visa programs, you make a couple of certifications. One of those certifications is that the person that you're bringing in has a hyper spa specialized, hyper capable skill set.

42:42And that's clearly not the case if you're just replacing one American worker with a foreign indentured servant and undercutting their wages in the process. And so the fraud is that they're making representations when applying for this program that are fundamentally illegitimate and therefore ultimately illegal.

43:00And then why we'll do one more in the Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. Editorial summary: The closing question concerned other possible priorities for the anti-fraud task force.

43:17Editorial summary: A speaker handoff occurs here; attribution within the original caption cue is uncertain. mean Andy, maybe you can speak to this a little bit. I I don't believe that we've taken significant steps on this task force yet, but obviously when we see credible allegations of fraud against any organization of any political persuasion, whether to Anony's point, whether it's an institution big or small, we take it very seriously.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States43:40Unfortunately, and others have made this point, there is so much fraud in the United States of America that we're investigating a lot of it, but we're kind of drinking out of a fire hose because unfortunately the US government allowed this stuff to go on for way too long without actually checking on it.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States43:55So, we're certainly looking in to any credible allegation of fraud, but we have not done a large amount of work on that particular issue just because it's something that we found out about relatively recently.

JD Vance, Vice President of the United States44:04All right, guys. Have a great day. Thank you all. Are