Washington: The Trump administration has launched its first major investigation into alleged fraud involving H-1B and PERM employment visas, with the US Labour Department’s Inspector General saying investigators have already issued dozens of subpoenas as part of a sweeping probe into suspected labour trafficking and abuse of foreign worker programmes.
Labour Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said the investigation would be one of the most aggressive actions ever undertaken by an Inspector General’s office against alleged foreign labour fraud.
“Without a doubt… we are gonna take an aggressive action, what we believe is probably the most aggressive action against foreign labour fraud by an Inspector General, this administration,” D’Esposito told Fox News in an interview. “We’ve already started to issue dozens of subpoenas.”
He said investigators would pursue every lead with support from the President Donald Trump administration and Vice President J.D. Vance’s fraud task force.
“We are going to make sure that we track down every lead,” D’Esposito said. He added that whistleblowers had raised concerns involving “some of the biggest companies, like Cognizant,” and said investigators would “work side by side with the president and vice president’s fraud task force” as the inquiry moves forward.
D’Esposito alleged that fraud involving foreign labour programmes is linked to wider criminal networks.
“This is another example where fraud is fueling violent crime,” he said. “Much of the visa and the human trafficking that we see when it comes to this foreign labour is tied to cartels, is tied to transnational gangs. And this is the work that we should be doing, not only to make America safe again, but to make America more affordable again.”
He also claimed that the alleged fraud extends beyond traditional labour-intensive industries.
“This is not just people working… in factories,” D’Esposito said. “These are people working in medical facilities, in doctors’ offices that are actually putting people in harm’s way. I mean, to the potential of causing death.” He said investigators would examine cases involving factories, ports, hospitals and nursing facilities across the United States.
The Inspector General said the probe is being coordinated with the Department of Justice and federal prosecutors.
“Fraudsters are gonna be hunted down. They are going to be investigated, they’re going to be arrested, and they’re going to be put behind bars,” he said.
D’Esposito also said the investigation is intended to ensure American workers are not displaced through abuse of employment-based visa programmes. He identified California, New York and Illinois among the states with the largest numbers of visa applicants.
“Our focus is we wanna make sure that we root out any fraud, waste and abuse in the visa programme to make sure that the American people… are not seeing their jobs taken away by foreigners or people who are gaming the system or financially benefiting from bringing these individuals into America and putting them into jobs that, quite frankly, they are not qualified to do,” he said.
The H-1B visa programme allows US employers to hire foreign professionals in speciality occupations requiring specialised knowledge.
The programme is widely used by technology companies, consulting firms, healthcare providers, engineering companies and universities. Indian nationals have consistently accounted for the largest share of H-1B beneficiaries, making the programme particularly significant for India’s information technology sector and skilled professionals seeking employment in the United States.
(IANS)
