Vance, Labor Dept. To Crackdown On Fraudulent Migrant Workers In U.S.

Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito told the New York Post that investigators believe the alleged schemes have cost the U.S. medical industry hundreds of millions of dollars, while also affecting other employment sectors.

He said some of the operations under investigation are believed to involve forced-labor networks and human trafficking organizations.

Labor’s Office of Inspector General has already “uncovered widespread schemes in which employers and labor brokers submitted fraudulent applications, exploited foreign workers through coercive wage-kickback arrangements, and undercut American workers by flooding the market with below-wage labor.”

Department of Homeland Security assessments so far have found as much as 21 percent of the H-1B petitions were fraudulent, The Post reported.