- JD Vance accused nine universities of using J-1 visas to undercut wages; the allegations remain unproven.
- The Labor Department has served subpoenas and opened investigations, citing a 61% rate versus a 38% national average.
- The administration separately suspended eight companies from new or pending PERM applications; that action is unrelated to the university probe.
Vice President JD Vance accused Arizona State University and eight other universities on October 8, 2026, of using J-1 exchange-visitor visas to pay foreign researchers less than comparable American graduate students and researchers. The Labor Department has served subpoenas and opened investigations. The allegations have not been established as violations.
“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,” Vance said at a White House press conference.
He cited a rate of about 61% for J-1 visa holders working on federally funded grants at the universities under scrutiny, compared with a 38% national average. Vance said the difference suggested “something weird is going on at these universities!”
The administration has announced an investigation, not a new university-visa restriction. No effective date for such a restriction was announced.
The investigation names nine universities
The inquiry covers the following institutions. The list includes public and private universities across several states.
- Arizona State University
- Harvard University
- Yale University
- Stanford University
- Brown University
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of California, Davis
- California Institute of Technology
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said investigators would look at whether “foreign influence, improper financial relationships, or visa abuse are compromising federally funded research.” He also announced a visa-fraud strike team.
D’Esposito described the probe as “a historic investigation into the J-1 visa fraud involving nine major American universities.” He said subpoenas had been served and investigations were underway, adding that “nobody will be getting a free pass because their name is carved into an expensive building.”
He also said: “Improperly using J-1 visa classifications to avoid employment obligations, exploit taxpayer-funded programs and undermine American workers will not be tolerated.” Those statements describe the government’s investigative focus. They are not findings that any university broke immigration or wage laws.
Vance connects the university claims to a wider wage argument
Vance framed the allegations as part of a broader argument that programs intended to bring specialized talent to the United States can be used to reduce labor costs. He said a foreign worker in one example earned $20,000 less than an American in a comparable role. A second example involved a $48,000 pay difference.
The examples were presented as wage comparisons. The public accounts do not connect either example to a particular university or identify the workers’ job titles.
In remarks about H-1B workers, Vance said they typically earn $20,000 less than Americans in equivalent positions, while workers recruited through outsourcing companies allegedly earn about $48,000 less. He called some visa holders “indentured servants,” arguing that a worker’s reliance on employer-sponsored immigration status can leave that person vulnerable to exploitation.
“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,” Vance said. He also called the H-1B system “rife with fraud over the last several years, probably the last several decades.”
He argued that some employers publish ineffective job advertisements, then say no qualified American applied before hiring a foreign worker for lower pay. Vance distinguished foreign nationals who establish businesses and create jobs from workers he said are brought in at lower wages to replace Americans.
“We cannot allow programmes that were designed to ensure that American corporations had access to the best and the brightest to be used to undercut the wages of workers,” he said. His argument is broader than the university inquiry, which centers on how institutions used J-1 classifications and federally funded research.
The administration announced separate employment-visa actions
The Labor Department also announced suspensions from the Permanent Labor Certification Program, known as PERM. Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling named Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini among companies barred from submitting new or processing pending applications under that program.
The PERM action is separate from the university investigation into J-1 visas. The announcement did not establish that the companies named in the suspensions were involved in the universities’ alleged conduct.
Vance singled out Microsoft, saying it laid off 6,000 American workers in the previous year while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. He called the arrangement a “scandalous system.”
“Our message to Microsoft is, you're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers,” he said. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department was investigating companies accused of favoring foreign workers over Americans. He warned that criminal cases could follow if evidence showed violations of U.S. law.
D’Esposito said earlier work by the administration’s fraud task force had produced 171 indictments, 203 convictions and 80 arrests, and identified more than $1 billion for taxpayers. Those figures concern the task force’s prior enforcement activity, not findings in the university investigation.
The Labor Department’s inquiry now turns on whether the named schools used J-1 classifications to avoid employment obligations or undercut pay in taxpayer-funded research. The allegations remain under investigation.
