A group of Texas Republicans in the House of Representatives is urging an administrative investigation into alleged H-1B Visa fraud and abuse in North Texas.
On April 22, the group issued a letter calling on Vice President JD Vance, and Secretaries Marco Rubio, Keith Sonderling and Markwayne Mullin to conduct an “interagency investigation” into reported H-1B fraud in North Texas.
Representative Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) is leading the request, joined by Reps. Pat Fallon (R-TX), Ronny Jackson (R-TX) and Brandon Gill (R-TX).
This request comes just as the Department of Homeland Security’s shutdown ended after President Donald Trump approved funding for nearly all agencies but immigration enforcement, leaving House Republicans frustrated.
Earlier this year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton initiated investigations to uncover H-1B fraud, arguing that companies were replacing “highly qualified workers” with lower-wage H-1B workers or setting up non-existent businesses at residential addresses or empty buildings.
"Any criminal who attempts to scam the H-1B visa program and use 'ghost offices' or other fraudulent ploys should be prepared to face the full force of the law," Paxton told Texas Politics in January.
The letter calls on relevant departments to take several specific actions, including investigating alleged H-1B fraud in North Texas, reevaluating current H-1B review processes, increasing auditing, improving real-time data sharing across DHS agencies and providing Congress with recommendations on how to close legal loopholes in the program.
In their letter, the group said they are concerned about the localized exploitation of North Texas’s business economy.
“When bad actors are able to manipulate visa pathways at scale, it distorts local labor markets, suppresses wages, and erodes trust in lawful immigration processes,” the group wrote.
Rep. Van Duyne said that the recent journalistic investigations uncovering visa fraud in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are a clear indication that this issue is an “affront” to the whole country.
“It harms American workers, depresses wages, leaves graduating university students without job prospects in their area of study,” Rep. Van Duyne said. “It must be stamped out for economic and national security reasons.”
