Washington, Oct 27 — Vice President JD Vance has pledged to crack down on visa fraud and on companies that lay off American workers and replace them with cheaper foreign labour, as he campaigned in Kansas a week before the November 3 midterm elections.
"We cut down on visa fraud and cut down against any company that would lay off an American worker and then replace them with a low wage foreigner, because sovereignty means American jobs go to American citizens and sovereignty means maybe most of all, that you control your streets," Vance said at a rally in Topeka, Kansas, on Monday.
Vance did not name any visa programme. But his remarks come as the administration's restrictions on skilled-worker visas remain tied up in court, an issue closely watched by Indian professionals, who are the largest group of H-1B beneficiaries.
Two federal courts have blocked the administration's $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions, one in Massachusetts in June and one in California on September 30. The government has appealed the California ruling to the Ninth Circuit. A case management conference in that case is scheduled in the district court for Tuesday.
Vance said "our movement was always about sovereignty it was about reminding the American people that their government belongs to them and that the government ought to fight for Americans first.”
He also said the administration would "ban Wall Street and foreign investors from buying up our homes, because sovereignty means that American homes and farmland ought to go to the American people for a change."
Vance announced that "today, the Department of Agriculture is announcing millions of dollars in new grants towards ten meatpacking facilities right here in the state of Kansas." He said "four companies have dominated the vast majority of American meat processing," adding that "two of them, by the way, completely controlled by foreign interests."
On drug prices, he said, "President Trump hauled the pharma companies into the Oval Office and demanded they treat Americans fairly or face the wrath of the whole federal government.”
He cited investment in Kansas by "great companies like Bombardier, which just last week announced it was bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars to expand its manufacturing footprint right here in the great state of Kansas."
On energy, Vance said "the price of gas goes up each time a foreign leader in the Middle East throws a tantrum," and that Democratic policies were "leaving us more reliant than ever on tinpot dictators in the Middle East." He said, "we just announced a major expansion in Texas of a refinery.”
Protesters interrupted the rally. "The only chance the Democrats have is to interrupt and shut down the debate," Vance said.
Vance campaigned for Republican Senator Roger Marshall, who faces Democrat Adam Hamilton. He called Hamilton "a career leftist who says you must repent for being white and eating meat," and said "he's going to vote with Chuck Schumer 100 per cent of the time."
Marshall told the crowd, "Radical Islam radical Islam is the single most immediate threat to American democracy and freedom we're seeing in real time in France what happens when weak moderates capitulate to radical Islam.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach also spoke. Kobach said he had won "$134 million against meta for Kansas kids.”
"On November the 3rd let your voice be heard," Vance said.