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By Hugh Cameron
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A Republican congresswoman has called for a total ban on the H-1B temporary visa program, part of a wider effort to “go after the immigration system” in the U.S.
On Tuesday, Texas Representative Beth Van Duyne told conservative commentator Benny Johnson that politicians had failed to consider the “unintended consequences” of immigration programs like the H-1B.
“That H-1B visa program has got to either stop right now until we understand the amount of just how it’s being taken advantage of, or redone so it doesn't exist," she said. "It cannot continue in the way it has.”
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Newsweek contacted Van Duyne’s D.C. office by phone outside of regular hours for comment.
Why It Matters
Created in 1990, the H-1B program allows American businesses to temporarily hire foreign workers in “specialty occupations.”
While President Donald Trump has defended H-1Bs, considering the temporary visas necessary to address a perceived shortage of homegrown talent, his administration has imposed more restrictive conditions on entry and imposed a $100,000 fee on new applications.
Several Republican lawmakers have either called for or introduced plans to phase out H-1Bs, despite warnings that this could harm the communities and companies that rely on the program.
What To Know
By early 2025, estimates suggested as many as 730,000 H-1B holders were in the United States, and hiring through the program has in recent years been dominated by large tech companies like Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, as well as firms across finance and professional services. FWD.US, a pro-immigration advocacy group, estimates that recipients contribute around $86 billion annually to the economy and pay roughly $35 billion in taxes.
The recent crackdown on H-1Bs, which has seen a handful of companies scale back their reliance on the program, has been criticized on these grounds, and a group of states recently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the new $100,000 fee.
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However, the program has also been criticized for allegedly favoring larger firms, suppressing domestic wages by importing foreign talent, and displacing U.S. workers.
On Tuesday, Van Duyne said that phasing out H-1Bs was part of a broader strategy to “go after the immigration system,” which would also involve repealing the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, a federal law that ended national-origin quotas favoring European immigrants and prioritized family reunification and skills-based immigration.
Of the H-1B, Van Duyne argued that the program “cannot continue in the way it has because it has absolutely hurt our American workers.”
Other Republican lawmakers have echoed these calls. In November, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said she would be introducing a bill to “END the mass replacement of American workers by aggressively phasing out the H1B program.”
What People Are Saying
Representative Van Duyne told Benny Johnson on Tuesday: “We pass these massive laws without realizing the consequences. It has opened our country to people who shouldn’t be here."
California Attorney General Bonta, in a press release detailing the state’s lawsuit against the administration: "As the world’s fourth largest economy, California knows that when skilled talent from around the world joins our workforce, it drives our state forward. President Trump’s illegal $100,000 H-1B visa fee creates unnecessary—and illegal—financial burdens on California public employers and other providers of vital services, exacerbating labor shortages in key sectors.”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration continues to implement changes to the H-1B program that effectively limit the number of successful applicants, most recently by adopting enhanced screening and social media vetting processes, which took effect on Monday.
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