Presidential DocumentExecutive Order 144312026-19555
Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
September 23, 2026
Signed
September 18, 2026
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 183 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 183 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 60501-60503]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-19555]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 183 / Wednesday, September 23, 2026 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 60501]]
Executive Order 14431 of September 18, 2026
Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency
Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B
Nonimmigrant Visa Program
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program
was created to identify uniquely skilled and highly
specialized foreign temporary workers to strategically
supplement the United States economy. Instead, the
program has been widely abused by certain employers,
third-party placement groups, and outsourcing firms to
undercut and displace the supply of skilled United
States labor. The large-scale, systematic abuse of the
H-1B program to obtain non-qualifying foreign labor has
undermined the additive purpose of the program and
harmed the wages, working conditions, and job
opportunities of skilled American workers.
The abuse of cheaper H-1B labor places downward
pressure on domestic pay. H-1B visa holders earn far
less than comparable United States-born workers,
despite the statutory mandate that H-1B workers be paid
equally to their domestic peers, with the estimated
wage gap starting at $9,000 and climbing as high as
$20,000 in H-1B reliant industries. One company even
warned its shareholders that restrictions on cheap H-1B
labor could force the company to use ``local'' workers,
which ``may only be available at higher wages.''
Many employers have laid off large numbers of highly
skilled American workers, only to promptly hire large
numbers of H-1B workers who are often lower-skilled and
lower-paid. For instance, technology sector employers
have collectively requested H-1B visas for hundreds of
thousands of workers, yet have also laid off somewhere
between 800,000 to 1.3 million American employees from
2022 through 2026. Employers have even forced laid off
American workers to train their foreign replacements.
Many jobs held by H-1B workers eventually leave the
United States entirely. Employers with outsourcing
business models use teams of H-1B visa holders to
replace United States workers at third-party client
businesses and liaise with other individuals working
off-site from their country of origin. As soon as
practicable, much of their own work is transferred
offshore. In Fiscal Year 2026, the top six users of the
H-1B program operating with this outsourcing business
model accounted for over 25,000 H-1B cap registrations.
One foreign country's foreign minister even publicly
admitted that H-1B ``has become the outsourcing visa.''
The systematic and organized abuse of the H-1B program
is also a national security threat. Domestic law
enforcement agencies have investigated H-1B-reliant
outsourcing firms for engaging in visa fraud,
conspiracy to launder money, and other illicit
activities to encourage foreign workers to come to the
United States. Abuses of the H-1B program also present
a national security threat by discouraging Americans
from pursuing careers in science and technology,
risking vital United States leadership in these fields.
Numerous executive departments and agencies (agencies)
have flagged employers' large-scale, systematic abuse
of the H-1B program to obtain lower-paid, lower-skilled
labor from abroad. These ongoing Government probes
continue to identify widespread fraud and noncompliance
among H-1B
[[Page 60502]]
employers, such as: displacing American workers or
otherwise giving preference to alien workers;
misrepresenting the duties, requirements, or working
conditions of job opportunities to avoid hiring or
training American workers, falsely qualify jobs as
specialty occupations, or lower applicable wage
requirements; and misrepresenting aliens'
qualifications to perform specialty occupations by
submitting questionable foreign degrees from diploma
mills as support for their H-1B visa applications. The
pervasiveness of these violations and the persistence
of the violators confirm that more needs to be done to
preserve the H-1B program's integrity.
I have determined that continued efforts must be made
to protect and prioritize the American workforce. It is
therefore the policy of the United States that all
relevant agencies shall implement appropriate measures
to protect American workers from abuse of the H-1B
program and ensure that the program serves the national
interest.
Sec. 2. Interagency Coordination. When processing
petitions, labor condition applications, and visas for
the entry into the United States of aliens as
nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty
occupation under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) (8 U.S.C.
1101(a)), the Secretary of State, the Secretary of
Labor, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall
coordinate and consult with the Secretary of Commerce,
the Secretary of Education, and the Administrator of
the Small Business Administration to ensure the
compliance of such petitions, applications, and visas
with statutory requirements, including those in
sections 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), 212(n), 214(i), and 274B
of the INA. The Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of
Education, and the Administrator of the Small Business
Administration shall provide any relevant wage,
employment, academic, industrial, or other economic
information.
Sec. 3. Consideration of Applications, Petitions, and
Visas. (a) Consistent with sections
101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), 212(n), 214(i), 215(a), and 274B
of the INA, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of
Labor, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall
take into account in any labor condition application,
petition, visa, and entry of aliens entering or
attempting to enter the United States as H-1B
nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty
occupation whether the employer sponsor directly or
indirectly engaged in layoffs within the previous year
or plans future layoffs that negatively affect the
employment of similarly situated United States workers.
(b) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the
Secretary of Labor, through the Administrator of the
Wage and Hour Division, shall begin reviewing data
related to previously submitted labor condition
applications to determine whether further action
against sponsoring employers is warranted under section
212(n)(2)(G).
(c) Pursuant to 3 U.S.C. 301, the authority granted
to the President under section 215(a) of the INA is
hereby delegated to the Secretary of State, the
Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, and the
Secretary of Homeland Security to the extent necessary
to implement this order, including the authority to
issue or adopt rules, policies, operational guidance,
or other guidance to carry out this order.
Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
[[Page 60503]]
(d) If any provision of this order, or the
application of any provision to any person or
circumstances, is held to be invalid, the remainder of
this order and the application of any of its other
provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall
not be affected thereby.
(e) The costs for publication of this order shall
be borne by the Department of Homeland Security.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
September 18, 2026.
[FR Doc. 2026-19555
Filed 9-22-26; 11:15 am]
Billing code 9110-9M-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on September 23, 2026.
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