We are laying out the case very vividly to the American people. l think that the foreign labor visa program is going to look very different 365 days from now than it does today.”
Anthony D’Esposito, Inspector General at the Department of Labor, has hinted at a potential “total shutdown” of the H‑1B visa program within the next year. Speaking in Washington, D’Esposito said investigators are building a sweeping case against fraud in the foreign labor system, adding: “We have handcuffs ready… We are building a case. I think that the efforts and the focus that you see from the White House and from this administration is telling a story.
Some outlets read his remarks as pointing to a total shutdown of the program, though his own words were that the system will look very different in 365 days. In a September 22 post, D’Esposito said his office is targeting colleges accused of exploiting J-1 visas, following the sponsors, grant money and people behind the scheme, and told fraudsters to expect cuffs. A presidential executive order now requires federal agencies to assess whether employers seeking foreign petitions have recently laid off similarly situated American workers, and the administration has introduced a $100,000 fee for certain new offshore petitions, along with extended entry restrictions on some overseas H-1B recipients through September 2027. The White House has said the earlier restriction was followed by a 92 per cent decline in H-1B registrations from the largest US IT outsourcing firms. In September 2025 it announced Project Firewall, aimed at ensuring employers prioritize qualified Americans in hiring and holding them accountable for abusing the H-1B process.
The Labor Department also launched a related enforcement effort last year.
In an interview with commentator Benny Johnson, D’Esposito warned that the H-1B program could look “very different” a year from now as the Trump administration steps up investigations into alleged foreign-labour fraud. He also said his team has “handcuffs ready” for offenders. “We are laying out the case very vividly to the American people,” he said, adding that the White House’s focus tells its own story. The administration is expanding a nationwide investigation into alleged foreign labor fraud, worker exploitation and potential human trafficking, according to reports. In a separate post, D’Esposito referred to alleged “fake employers,” “sham jobs” and “visa mills,” and the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General said on September 18 that it had issued dozens of subpoenas and executed search warrants in multiple locations.
The remarks come amid an aggressive push by the Trump administration to tighten oversight of the H‑1B program, which allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. He described the effort as a deliberate, public case-building exercise. He rejected the idea that this is routine compliance work, saying it is not a paperwork accounting issue and that “this is real. The office is also looking beyond H-1B. The enforcement push runs alongside other administration measures. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.