The H-1B investigation into foreigners exploiting worker visas in the US has moved at a rapid pace since Vice President JD Vance announced it last week — with the Department of Labor already preparing affidavits, sources tell me, as they examine alleged abuse of a program they say is rife with fraud.

“We have areas … where we’re already in the process of writing up affidavits to swear out search warrants,” Anthony D’Esposito, the DOL Inspector General leading the investigation, said.

While the immediate focus is on rooting out fraud — and whether a program meant to bring exceptional talent into the country has been stretched into a cheap labor pipeline — it also addresses a bigger issue: Can the government restore Gen Z citizens’ faith that they are needed to build our future?

“H-1B abuse isn’t just about jobs. It’s about whether young Americans still believe they have a fair shot at the American dream,” D’Esposito added. “It’s also a mindset. When you grew up in a household where you’re constantly hearing that we’re not good enough — that the foreign labor is not only cheaper, but they are more sophisticated, they’re more talented — what does that do?”

Indeed, this crackdown comes as Gen Z and young Millennials are feeling malaise about the future, with a new analysis of census data indicating a record 25 million adults under 35 are still living with their parents.

Making sure homegrown talent isn’t getting replaced is one way to inject optimism — and, ideally, to prevent a self-fulfilling prophecy that stops kids from wanting to go into tech and other fields that rely heavily on H-1Bs.

“Our job is to make sure that we protect the American worker and give the American jobs to the American people that need them,” Esposito said.

If a college student or recent grad sees the government finally pushing back on this, he said, they might think, “All right, this is good. There’s an opportunity for me to be the success that I want to be.”

When the H-1B program was created with the Immigration Act of 1990, around 52,000 of the visas were issued the first year. For fiscal year 2026, it’s capped at 65,000 new visas plus another 20,000 for foreigners who graduate with a master’s or doctorate degree from a US college, according to Immigration Services.

All told, there are now 730,000 H-1B visa holders currently in the US.

Roughly 65% of H1B visas issued in 2025 are for workers at tech companies, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. But even some Silicon Valley insiders who previously opposed President Trump’s effort to crack down on the program acknowledged to me that a reset is overdue.

Last week, news that Microsoft has received approval to bring on 2,273 H-1B visa holders but plans to lay off 4,800 current workers — roughly 20% of its Xbox workforce — hit a nerve online.

It seemed to confirm what many critics have long suspected: that H-1B is too often about bringing in cheaper, more dependent labor and less about filling gaps with truly rare talent.

The debate over H-1B visas first exploded in late 2024, marking the first notable fissure between the Trump-aligned tech world pushing to keep the status quo and the MAGA base eager to crack down on immigration.

While several high-profile figures like Elon Musk — who initially came over a student visa and obtained an H-1B for his technical and engineering expertise to work at the start-up Zip2 — have benefited from the program, others, including venture capitalist and “All-In” podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya, have publicly acknowledged they likely wouldn’t get one today under the current system. (Raised in Canada, Palihapitiya now holds dual citizenship.)

So far, the IT consulting firm Cognizant is the only company D’Esposito has called out by name, telling Fox News that whistleblowers had raised concerns. But sources suggest many big tech companies rely on thousands and thousands of visas as a way to cut costs.

D’Esposito told me investigators are responding to a wide range of complaints about the system being abused — much of which, he noted, has gone unaddressed for years.

“This extortion of the H-1B visa program is not new,” D’Esposito said. He argued that past leadership across many inspector general offices had been “very much part of the bureaucratic rot that consumes Washington, DC.”

To be sure, the US still wants the next Elon or Einstein to immigrate but we must also ensure American children are also encouraged to reach the stars.