Vance tells Oregon AG ‘hire Americans’ amid H-1B visa fee dispute

Vice President JD Vance sparred with Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, whose state is waging a multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration over President Donald Trump’s order to impose a $100,000 fee for H1B skilled worker visas.

In September, Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security to restrict decisions on H-1B visa applications outside the United States for a period of one year – while allowing current visa holders to apply for renewal under the previous, less costly framework.

Rayfield, a Democrat, announced Friday that Oregon and 18 other states are alleging the new $100,000 fee is illegal, saying the “massive” amount does not exceed Congress’s authorization and intent to establish the visa program.

“You could try hiring Americans,” Vance said in a social media response to Rayfield’s announcement.

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Vice President JD Vance laughs during a speech in Allentown, Pennsylvania. (Pool/Getty Images)

In his tweet that caught Vance’s attention, Rayfield said the H-1B visa system allows employers — including Oregon colleges — to hire “qualified foreign workers in specialized roles like doctors, researchers and nurses.”

Vance’s view has already been reinforced by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who called the H-1B system a “scam” that is “used to import cheap foreign labor at the expense of Americans.”

Vance then added to his criticism, saying the situation was “instructive” about the importance of the visa issue.

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“While I know there are many people in our coalition who – rightly – are angry about immigration fraud in our visa system, Republicans and Democrats in ‘America Last’ are coming together to end our efforts to solve these problems,” he said.

“Don’t take a black pill. Fight,” he added.

In announcing the lawsuit, Rayfield’s office said the $100,000 fee exceeded the authority granted to the executive branch by the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 — a law sponsored by Sen. Patrick McCarran, Democrat of Nevada, called a “bill of rights” for federally regulated entities.

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Rayfield’s office calculated that the average fee for an H-1B visa ranges from $960 to $7,600 — and criticized the administration for not announcing the fees through the typical notice and comment process under the McCarran Act.

It also suggests that these fees run counter to Trump’s stated goal: to address labor shortages in critical business areas.

“Oregon’s colleges, universities and research institutions rely on skilled international workers to keep labs running, classes on track and innovation happening,” Rayfield said in a statement.

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Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield speaks at a podium. (Eric Lee/Getty Images)

“These enormous fees would make it nearly impossible for these institutions to hire the experts they need, and it goes far beyond what Congress ever intended. It threatens Oregon’s ability to compete, educate and grow.”

In announcing the initial order, the White House said the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was “created to bring temporary workers to the United States to perform additional, high-skilled roles, but has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, U.S. workers with a lower-paid, less-skilled workforce.”

Other states, including Delaware and California, also joined the suit, with Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings calling Trump’s order “an unserious idea that threatens a profoundly serious crisis.”

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Former Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan also pushed for an increase in similar H-2B visas in 2021, given the Old Line State’s massive crabbing and seasonal fishing sectors.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Rayfield as well as Oregon Governor Tina Kotek for comment on Vance’s remarks.