Companies are intentionally seeking out visa workers. The payoff is fed inquiries, low wages

Straight Arrow / By

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A work visa is one of many ways for people to immigrate to the U.S. and secure permanent residency. A group is collecting postings from companies they say are illegally scouting for visa-eligible applicants over American citizens, a common target for some politicians. 

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and several other federal agencies have issued stricter rules on visa applicants that stem from perceived proliferation of fraud or reliance on government benefits. Federal judges have struck down some of the moves as being unconstitutional. 

It hasn’t frayed allies or supporters from reporting companies or campaigning on keeping jobs in the U.S. for American citizens. 

“Microsoft is laying off 4,800+ American workers, even though it is the 3rd LARGEST recipient of H-1B visas,” the press office of U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on X. “In the past, Microsoft has REPLACED Americans with cheap foreign labor. Congress must immediately pass Rep. Roy’s American White Collar Worker Jobs Act to END H-1B abuse.”

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There are 274 U.S. companies hiring for visa-eligible applicants, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The users said employers are committing mass fraud with the postings and alienating American workers. No information is available on how many of the 214,596 H-1B visas issued in the 2025 fiscal year were fraudulent. 

Across all visa types, the State Department approved 11 million applicants in the 2024 fiscal year. Of that, about 6.2% were for employment visas. 

“The lower-skilled side isn’t so much with visa manipulation, but there is a lot of anecdotal evidence where businesses will make sure Americans don’t get hired for manual labor jobs,” Jason Richwine, resident scholar at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, told Straight Arrow. “It’s a conflict where immigrants are seen as preferred to Americans.”

Tracking visa-friendly job postings

Online, users mainly on X are collecting postings from companies seeking out non-citizens. One company of their focus is Conch Technologies in Memphis, Tennessee. The posting said “no U.S. citizens” in red text. It was only accepting applicants who are Green Card-eligible or are spouses of a Green Card holder. 

User “Mr Nice Guy” confirmed to another person he reported the listing to the DOL, Customs and the Justice Department. He’d already spoken to staffers about it. 

Chris Brunet is one of those people, sharing job postings or notices of intent to hire a nonimmigrant. The postings aren’t like Conch. They instead say the jobs are open to international applicants. For the notices, they’re requirements all employers must fulfill before formally offering a position to a noncitizen. 

The two aren’t alone. Several accounts have pleaded for the H-1B visa program to be reformed, believing that Americans are getting passed over. However, not all companies are required to offer a job to an American. According to the Labor Department, employers who are H-1B dependent or have violated the visa’s requirements must first find a qualified American.

“The reality is that of course Americans are qualified,” Richwine said. He wrote in an April 2025 report that immigrants were the majority share in manicurists, landscaping, construction and taxi drivers. 

Employers cannot explicitly hire for non-citizens since it falls under discrimination, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has sued companies for those hiring practices, calling them discriminatory.

Visa system needs reform

Lawmakers, unions and policy organizations have made attempts to reform the way the nation’s work visa program operates. 

In terms of legislation, U.S. Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., introduced a bill in April to pause H-1B visa processing while the program is overhauled. The bill, End H-1B Visa Abuse Act of 2026, would reduce the annual cap from 65,000 to 25,000 issuances and eliminate exemptions. 

Crane also sought to replace the lottery system with a wage-based selection program, require employers to confirm they couldn’t locate a qualified American and disallow the workers from bringing their children into the U.S. 

“We owe it to the American people to prevent the broken H-1B system from boxing them out of jobs they are qualified to perform,” Crane said in an April release. “The End H-1B Visa Abuse Act of 2026 would provide greater access to employment, strengthen protocols in the visa process, and prioritize the livelihoods of Americans.”

The AFL-CIO’s Department for Professional Employees has urged Congress to address issues in work visas relating to immigrants being confined to one job, paid low wages or Americans not considered for the jobs. 

The Migration Policy Institute added that Congress last overhauled the program in 1990 with the Immigration Act. It proposed a set of reforms in 2024 that would allow for employers to still sponsor people to enter the nation, and establish random audits, among other measures.

The proposal would establish a process for employment visa-holders to become permanent residents. 

“The overarching goal would be to generate a lasting framework that is flexible enough to adapt over time to changing economic and demographic realities and to the shifting push and pull factors shaping migration to the United States—and, crucially, that does not force the country to wait several decades for Congress to find supermajority support for future reforms,” Julia Gelatt and Muzaffar Chishti wrote in the document.

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