Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, IMMIGRATION NEWS—White House orders greater H-1B scrutiny for employers with recent layoffs, (Sep 21, 2026)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

A new executive order directs agencies to consider recent and planned layoffs when reviewing H-1B applications, while a companion proclamation extends for another year restrictions first imposed on certain H-1B workers in 2025.

The “Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program” executive order signed September 18 by President Donald Trump directs federal agencies to increase coordination and scrutiny of H-1B applications and to review existing data for potential enforcement actions, with particular attention to employers that have conducted layoffs affecting U.S. workers. The “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers” proclamation, also issued last week, extends and continues the restrictions imposed by the same-named proclamation from 2025 (Proclamation 10973), based on the administration’s view that the 2025 measures were effective. An associated fact sheet was also released by the administration.

The “outsourcing visa.” According to the executive order, “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.” Many of those jobs, it adds, “eventually leave” the country entirely.

According to the order:

“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.’”

Claiming that this constitutes a “national security threat,” the order states that “more needs to be done to preserve the H-1B program’s integrity.”

Layoffs to be considered. Therefore, it instructs the Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Secretary of State to more aggressively use existing authorities to ensure the program serves what the administration describes as its intended purpose of supplementing, rather than replacing, the domestic workforce. It requires agencies to consider whether an employer has engaged in layoffs during the previous year, or plans future layoffs, that negatively affect similarly situated U.S. workers when reviewing labor condition applications, visa petitions, and visa applications. It directs the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division to begin reviewing data from previously submitted labor condition applications within 30 days to determine whether enforcement action may be warranted against sponsoring employers.

It also requires the Departments of Labor, Homeland Security, and State to consult with the Departments of Commerce and Education, as well as the Small Business Administration, when evaluating H-1B-related matters. Those agencies are directed to provide wage, employment, academic, industrial, and other economic information that could be relevant to program administration and enforcement.

Grace period elimination proposal. This order is the latest effort by the administration to crack down on the use of H-1B visas, both directly and indirectly. In addition to the two proclamations, earlier this month the Department of Homeland Security proposed eliminating a long-standing regulation that allows many high-skilled foreign workers (and their dependents), including those on an H-1B visa, to remain in the United States for up to 60 days after losing their jobs, arguing that the policy is inconsistent with immigration law and imposes unnecessary administrative burdens on the government.

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