WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is going after nine elite universities on suspicion of visa fraud, accusing them of unlawfully benefiting financially from hiring and admitting foreign nationals.
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State, and MIT are under examination by federal investigators, Vice President JD Vance announced Thursday, suggesting the schools are exploiting the J-1 visa program to import cheaper students from overseas and skirt employment obligations to US citizens.
“Something weird is going on at these universities,” said Vance. “They’re using these visas way too much. They’re using them to undercut the wages of American grad students and American researchers, and it simply has to stop.”
The Labor Department is establishing a visa fraud strike team as part of the probe and subpoenas have already been sent to the schools.
“Nobody will be getting a free pass because their name is carved into an expensive building,” said Labor Department watchdog Anthony D’Esposito, who reported that 61% of post-grad students at US universities come from overseas.
“American taxpayers send billions of dollars to these universities to support research and innovation. They deserve to know where that money is be, where is going, and whether it’s being used lawfully.”
