U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), merit an investigation for alleged J-1 visa fraud.

"While we see a lot of H-1B visa fraud, we also see a lot of J-1 visa fraud. And this is where some of America's most elite universities bring in foreigners again to undercut the wages of American residents. Now, there are nine universities in particular that we believe merit an investigation," Vance said at a press conference.

Those universities are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California-Davis, the California Institute of Technology, Arizona State University, and the MIT, according to the announcement.

"Something weird is going on at these universities. They're using these visas way too much. They're using them to undercut the wages of American grad students and American researchers, and it simply has to stop," Vance said.

At the press conference, Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling said he is suspending from the Permanent Labor Certification Program some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world: Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCLTech, and Capgemini.

Sonderling also noted that "due to multiple active federal investigations," the Department of Labor is suspending Microsoft and Adobe from the program.

Since 2009, these companies have requested almost 3 million foreign workers. They've received over 230,000 H-1B visas approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications, according to the secretary.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant U.S. work visa that lets American companies hire foreign workers for specialized jobs. It is widely used by U.S. technology companies to attract highly educated and skilled foreign talent.

Since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, his administration has tightened immigration policies, cracking down on undocumented immigrants and increasing scrutiny of U.S. visa holders.