Vance Backs Eliminating H-1B Visa Program as Completely Broken
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What happened
Vice President JD Vance said Thursday, in an interview with Jack Posobiec aboard Air Force Two, that he would support eliminating the H-1B visa program, calling it completely broken and arguing that some employers use it to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign labor. The H-1B program lets U.S. employers temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty occupations and is capped at 85,000 new visas a year; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received more than 211,000 registrations for the most recent lottery. A second federal judge on Wednesday blocked agencies from enforcing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions imposed by presidential proclamation, after a June ruling also struck the fee down; the administration is appealing. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security proposed in August a $103,265 fee on each cap-subject H-1B petition, which has not taken effect.
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 3 articles
2 of 2 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
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ONE-SIDED THIS WEEK.
Only right-leaning outlets have covered this story in the last two days;
Bloomberg reported it on 2026-09-18.
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage has not reported Vice President Vance's call to end the H-1B visa. Right-leaning coverage in Daily Wire says he told Jack Posobiec he would support eliminating the program, which he called "completely broken." He also accused employers of replacing Americans with cheaper foreign labor. The same broken verdict appears in The Federalist, which treats the visa as possibly past repair but skips the elimination pledge. A reader of left-leaning outlets would miss the remarks entirely.
Right-leaning coverage splits on what to put first. Daily Wire leads with the Air Force Two interview and judges stopping a new filing fee. The Federalist leads with the visa's drift from elite talent into a "pipeline to India."
If the program were eliminated, what would happen to workers already here on H-1B status?
Bottom line
Vance's promise to eliminate H-1B appears only in right-leaning outlets such as Daily Wire. Left-leaning coverage has not carried the remarks at all.
The receipts — 4 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Vance said he would be very supportive of just eliminating the H-1B program
- Vance described bringing in an accountant making $45,000 a year to replace an American making $60,000
- On average, H-1B workers earn 16 percent less than comparable natives
- Vance framed the remarks as his own position rather than a policy statement from the administration
The Right View
Daily Wire and The Federalist reported Vance’s remarks as a call to scrap a program he said has been totally taken advantage of by technology companies, accounting firms, and other employers. They quoted him distinguishing bringing in a genius from replacing an American accountant earning $60,000 with a foreign accountant at $45,000, and saying Congress would not reform H-1B because a lot of people were bought by the cheap labor lobby, while the Trump administration was trying to make the program less fraudulent. Coverage detailed the blocked $100,000 proclamation fee, the separate proposed $103,265 DHS fee, and demand far above the 85,000-visa cap. The Federalist added historical context, cited George Borjas’s finding that H-1B workers earn 16 percent less than comparable natives, noted Amazon as a top H-1B sponsor amid layoffs, and flagged a Democratic bill (H.R. 6305) that would raise the regular cap to 130,000.
Our Take (balanced)
The story is substantive: it rests on named quotes from the vice president in a specified interview, plus checkable court actions, fee amounts, statutory caps, and USCIS lottery figures. Vance’s support for eliminating H-1B is established as his stated view; claims that employers systematically replace Americans, that H-1B workers are underpaid relative to natives, and that Congress is captured by a cheap labor lobby remain allegations unless independently verified. Judicial blocks of the $100,000 fee are established; the $103,265 charge is a proposed rule, not current law. No left-leaning outlet has reported this. Watch next for whether the White House treats elimination as administration policy, congressional reaction, appellate outcomes on the fee litigation, and the fate of the DHS fee proposal.
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