Vance slams tech companies for replacing American workers with H1-B visa holders

"You see some big tech companies where they'll lay off 9,000 workers, and then they'll apply for a bunch of overseas visas. And I sort of wonder; that doesn't totally make sense to me," Vance said at the Hill and Valley Forum. Although Vance did not say it directly, Microsoft said earlier in July the firm would be laying off 9,000 workers.

"That displacement and that math worries me a bit. And what the president has said, he said very clearly: We want the very best and the brightest to make America their home. We want them to build great companies and so forth. But I don't want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then to go and say, 'We can't find workers here in America.' That's a bullsh*t story," Vance added.

One of the hosts then asked him directly, "What did Microsoft say when you brought that up with Microsoft?" Vance laughed and said that he "just became aware of this a couple weeks ago," and added that it was Microsoft that he had been referring to and that despite laying off 9,000 workers, the company is "saying they're desperate for workers."

This comes after President Donald Trump this week laid into the tech industry, slamming companies he said have "reaped the blessings of American freedom while building their factories in China, hiring workers in India, and stashing profits in Ireland. All the while dismissing and even censoring their fellow citizens right here at home. Under President Trump those days are over." He then called on them to "put America first."