JD Vance backs H1B crackdown, praises Indian-origin in-laws, tells immigrants to prioritise 'American identity' over origins

US Vice President JD Vance, at the Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia, defended the aggressive crackdown on H1B visas by the US government. While responding to a question from an Indian origin student, Vance acknowledged the fraud concerns of the H1B Visas, but heaped praises on his in-laws for enriching the country. He claimed that the responsibility for such immigrants coming to the country on an H1B Visa is to embrace the American identity and “the system only works if everyone thinks about America.”

A student in the audience asked Vance what the Trump administration was doing to improve the situation of green cards. She added that her parents came through an H1B visa, and it would have taken 150 years for them to get a green card. She claimed that her parents sent her to a private catholic school, and they were in America for more than two decades, but it was still hard to get a green card.

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Vance responded to the woman, acknowledging that there was a lot of fraud in the H1B system, but believes that “there are people who have come to the United States in the past who have enriched this country.” He continued, “I'm married to the daughter of immigrants from India. And, you know, I love my in-laws. They're great people, and they have been great contributors to the United States of America.”

"But I also think when you become an American citizen, whether your family is nine generations of lineage or whether your family has fewer generations of lineage in the United States, one responsibility we must expect of citizens, and it is always hard to talk in specifics about your situation because I do not know about it, but one obligation of citizens is you have to think about the best interests of the country and not the one you came from beforehand, and not any, any group you came from. You have got to think of yourself as an American,” said Vance.

The student was expressing frustration that it has been "really hard" to secure permanent residency, and despite paying everything like an ordinary citizen, they could not fulfil the “American Dream”. Vance's response did not explicitly mention what the Trump administration was doing or planned to do to fix the US immigration system. Vance avoided addressing any administrative steps taken by his government and pivoted to an ideological theme of “America First”. Vance had been known for his vocal opposition to H-1 B visas; he accused corporations of using these visas to hire cheap labour under the guise of hiring geniuses.