Washington, DC [US], April 15 (ANI): Vice President of the United States JD Vance said on Tuesday (local time) that his Indian-origin in-laws are 'great contributors' to the United States, as he underlined that while the administration is taking a tough stand on immigration fraud, it also recognises the role of immigrants who have 'enriched' the country.

Speaking at a Turning Point USA tour event at the University of Georgia, Vance said citizens must prioritise the interests of the United States over the country they came from.

During the interaction, an Indian-origin attendee raised concerns about delays in green cards for those on H-1B visas. She said, 'I am also a daughter of a legal immigrant who came here on an H-1B visa. My mom and my dad, we've been here for over 10 years... it's been really hard like getting the green card based on everything with quotas and everything. How do we fix the immigration system for people who have been waiting for the green cards for so long and they're not getting it in time?'

Responding to the question, Vance said, 'I would say you know you heard me talk about H-1B fraud because I think there is a lot of fraud in the H-1B system. And I think you can all you can believe on the one hand that there's a lot of fraud in the H-1B system while also believing that there are people who have come to the United States in the past who have enriched this country and look, I am married to the daughter of immigrants from India and, you know, I love my in-laws and they're great people and they've been great contributors to the United States of America.'

He added, 'But I also think that when you become an American citizen, whether your family is nine generations of lineage in the United States or whether your family has zero generations of lineage in the United States, one of the responsibilities that we must expect of citizens and I of course you know it's always hard to talk in specifics about your situation because I don't know about it but one of the obligations of citizens is that you have to think about the best interest of the country and not the country you came from before hand and not of any sort of any group that you came from you've got to think of yourself as an American.'

Vance also praised his father-in-law, calling him 'an amazing guy'. He said, 'My father-in-law is an amazing guy... father-in-law who came from India who moved to the United States who got an education and became an American citizen that never once never once in my life has he ever said 'you have to do this' or 'you should do this because it's in the best interest of the country that I came from.''

The remarks come amid a tougher stance adopted by the administration on immigration and citizenship. In January, the number of detainees in custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement crossed 70,000 for the first time in the agency's 23-year history, according to internal data from the Department of Homeland Security obtained by CBS News. (ANI)