A Silicon Valley investor at Y Combinator, Ankit Gupta, faced criticism from Trump administration officials after reportedly describing Vice President JD Vance’s call for companies to hire and train Americans as “DEI”. The dispute arose amid a broader row over proposed high fees for new H-1B visa petitions, which supporters say could encourage technology firms to recruit more US workers rather than relying on overseas labour.

Labour Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and civil-rights official Harmeet Dhillon accused Gupta of dismissing American workers’ interests and highlighted alleged abuses of foreign-worker visa programmes. The proposed fee is $103,265 for many new H-1B applications; the programme is widely used in technology for specialist roles and has long divided opinion over whether it fills skills shortages or undercuts domestic workers, particularly younger and entry-level staff. Y Combinator chief executive Garry Tan responded that the organisation supports hiring and funding Americans.