Blue city emerges as 'suspected hotspot' of visa fraud as swing state lawmaker demands answers
FIRST ON FOX: A blue city in one of the country's hottest battleground states is accused of being a potential hotbed of foreign worker visa fraud, according to the House lawmaker who represents the area.
Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., is writing to the Trump administration on Tuesday asking for an investigation into alleged abuse of the H-1B work visa program in his own district. He warned in the letter that his district is a "suspected hotspot of this fraud" and offered himself as "an interlocutor to help enable cooperation with state-level agencies and law enforcement."
Georgia's 7th Congressional District, which McCormick represents, encompasses part of the Atlanta metro area including the city's northern suburbs. That includes part of Fulton County, whose top prosecutor, Fani Willis, has been under heavy scrutiny by Republicans in recent years.
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"Established by the Immigration Act of 1990, the purpose of the H-1B program is to allow American businesses to temporarily bring in foreign citizens to fill key, high-skill employment positions when the domestic workforce demonstrably cannot provide the necessary labor," McCormick wrote.
"Unfortunately, the H-1B program has become the subject of rampant fraud and abuse for the nefarious purposes of obtaining labor that bad actors can exploit below-market-rate wages and abusive work conditions given H-1B holders’ dependence on retaining their employment in order to avoid removal back to their country of origin."
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He said the alleged fraud is sowing uncertainty in the U.S. labor market by undercutting wages and unfairly increasing competition for American workers, particularly those fresh out of college.
"Bad actors have developed illicit methods for meeting the requirements for obtaining H-1B visas and the necessary work authorizations, and they employ these methods at scale to enrich themselves through fraud and exploitation via the most threadbare compliance with the letter of the law," McCormick wrote.
The Georgia Republican said his suspicions were raised by "stakeholder engagement, reports from my constituents, and recent federal investigation and enforcement activity targeting entities in and around GA-07."
And while he did not name specific businesses or people he believes are associated with such fraud, McCormick argued, "Metro Atlanta’s recent economic growth and international airport unfortunately make it a logical area of concentration for these bad actors."
The Trump administration launched an investigation into suspected H-1B visa fraud in July.
H-1B visas have become the subject of fierce debate on the right, with prominent critics like Vice President JD Vance calling it a "broken" system while calling to eliminate it altogether.
Supporters of H-1B visas, like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, have argued it's critical for attracting global talent in fields like technology and engineering that are key to keeping the U.S. at the forefront of global innovation.