The Trump administration started a major investigation into H-1B and PERM foreign labor visas, the Labor Department’s Inspector General Anthony P. D’Esposito announced Wednesday.
The investigation aims to take the “most aggressive action against foreign labor fraud by an Inspector General this administration” to further President Trump’s goal to end foreign violence on American soil and return jobs to the American people, D’Esposito told Fox Business.
D’Esposito, who is leading the investigation, stated that the department has already begun “issu[ing] dozens of subpoenas.” He also noted that there are “whistleblowers talking about some of the biggest companies” who have abused H1-B and PERM (Permanent Labor Certification) visas.
By partnering “side by side with the president and vice president’s fraud task force,” the inspector general hopes to “track down every lead” and provide “investigators and auditors every resource necessary in order to conduct this investigation for the American people,” he said.
D’Esposito exposed that there is “without a doubt” human trafficking in the visa programs. “This is another example of where fraud is fueling violent crime,” he continued. “Much of the visa and the human trafficking that we see when it comes to this foreign labor is tied to cartels [and] transnational gangs.”
By ending visa-enabled human trafficking, the Trump administration will “not only make America safe again but … make America more affordable again,” by giving job openings back to the American people, D’Esposito said.
During his interview with Fox, D’Esposito called out Cognizant, a leading American multinational IT and AI consulting company, for allegedly utilizing H-1B visa workers for cheap labor and preventing American citizens from earning those jobs.
The IT and tech industry is overrun with H-1B visa holders. Amazon ranks as the highest employer of H1-B foreigners, with more than 10,000 visa worker approvals last year alone. Microsoft halved that amount, with slightly more than 5,000 approvals in 2025. Meta, Apple, and Google follow close behind.
The American Immigration Council found a 2021 median H-1B wage of $108,000, while the average American worker made $45,760 per year. Yet nearly two-thirds “of H-1B positions certified by the U.S. Department of Labor are assigned wage levels well below the local median wage for the occupation,” the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute reported. The conservative Heritage Foundation agreed, noting that only one in six H-1B positions receives top wages. This allows foreign workers to come to the U.S. and make more than the average American by taking high-paying STEM jobs, yet still save anti-American companies money by taking a lower salary for their work level or expertise.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma recently fired 20 percent or 3,200 of the company’s staff, yet the parent company, Microsoft, reportedly filed for thousands of H-B1 visas this year with an average salary offering of more than $150,000. A Microsoft spokesperson defended the move to Newsweek, saying, “These decisions are based on business need, not visa status. H-1B employees were also impacted by job eliminations in the U.S.”
Inspector General D’Esposito wants to shut down the anti-American worker money-making loophole “to make sure that the … hardworking Americans who want to get to work [during] President Trump’s administration are able to do just that.”
