US Vice President JD Vance on 22 August sharpened the Trump administration's America-first employment message at a steel facility in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, declaring that corporations must prioritise training and hiring US citizens before turning to foreign labour. The remarks came alongside a $1 billion investment announcement by Cleveland-Cliffs in its Middletown steel operations.

What Vance Said

'What we did is we told American corporations that if you wanted new workers, you got to start by training and hiring your own countrymen,' Vance said. He placed foreign workers alongside illegal immigration, outsourcing, and what he characterised as unfair trade practices in a broader argument about the decades-long erosion of American manufacturing.

Vance also accused sections of corporate America of moving production overseas to exploit lower wages, and claimed some US workers had been forced to train foreign replacements before losing their own jobs. He cited the case of a computer programmer named Kevin Flanagan, who, according to Vance, lost his position at a bank and was required to train a foreign replacement to receive severance benefits.

On Tariffs and Corporate Accountability

'We were willing to tell the corporations that wanted to hire foreign labor, that if you wanted to bring that stuff back into the United States, you were going to pay a big fat tariff for doing so,' Vance said. The Vice President described tariffs as the administration's primary lever against businesses shifting manufacturing abroad, framing them as a reward-and-penalty system for corporate behaviour.

Notably, Vance did not identify any specific legal visa programme — including the H-1B skilled-worker visa — by name during his remarks, nor did he mention India or Indian professionals directly. His comments nonetheless drew a broad line between what he called the interests of 'native-born Americans' and those of foreign workers across multiple categories.

Claims on Jobs and Wages

Vance claimed the administration's immigration enforcement had produced net outward migration and shifted the distribution of employment gains. 'Do you know that all net job growth over the past 18 months went to native born Americans?' he said. He further claimed the manufacturing sector had added 229,000 jobs in 2026 and that manufacturing wages had risen 4.2 per cent year-on-year, though he did not cite the source of these figures.

Attack on Democrats

Vance broadened his address into a political attack, accusing Democrats of prioritising foreign nationals over US workers and taxpayers. 'Whether it's child predators, Somali fraudsters, foreign gang members, or even visa fraudsters who are working to undercut American wages and steal from American taxpayers,' he said, 'the Democrats know who they stand for.' The remarks drew sharp contrasts between the two parties ahead of what analysts expect to be an immigration-heavy political cycle.

What Comes Next

The Cleveland-Cliffs investment in Middletown is being positioned by the administration as evidence that its tariff and hiring policies are already attracting domestic industrial commitment. How the administration's broader foreign-labour stance translates into specific regulatory or visa policy changes remains to be seen, with no legislative proposals announced at the event.