Kathmandu. Former U.S. Representative and Economist Dr. Dave Brat has alleged widespread fraud in the H-1B visa system. In a podcast, Brat claimed that a single district in India has received more than twice the number of visas granted legally in the country.
Bratt’s comments have reinvigorated the program’s scrutiny. This comes at a time when the Trump administration is intensifying its crackdown on H-1B visas.
Speaking on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, Brat said, “The H-1B system has been taken over by industrial-scale fraud. The legal limit has been crossed while issuing visas from India. ’
“Seventy-one per cent of the H-1B visas come from India and only 12 per cent come from China. It shows that something is going on there. There is only a limit of 85,000 H-1B visas. However, in one way or the other, Madras (Chennai), a district of India, got 2 lakh 20 thousand. This is 2.5 times the limit set by Congress. So it’s a scam. ’
Brat portrayed the issue as a direct threat to American workers. “When one of them comes in and claims to be skilled,” he said. But they’re not, it’s cheating. They are taking away your family’s job, mortgage, house, everything. ’
According to reports, the US Consulate in Chennai processed about 220,000 H-1B visas and an additional 140,000 H-4 dependents in 2024. The Consulate has handled applications from 4 major regions: Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana. This makes it one of the busiest H-1B processing centers in the world.
