The January 27 directive from Texas governor Greg Abbott ordered all public universities and state agencies to immediately freeze H-1B petitions, banning new visas until June 2027, unless given permission from the Texas Workforce Commission.
“The economy of Texas should work for the benefit of Texas workers and employers,” wrote Abbott, claiming that “bad actors” had exploited the program by “failing to make good-faith efforts to recruit qualified US workers before seeking to use foreign labour”.
According to Abbott, the program is being used to fill jobs that could have been filled by Texans, rather than its intended purpose of attracting skilled international talent to fill specialised and unmet labour needs.
However, university faculty immediately raised concerns that the freeze would diminish the value of teaching and research at Texas universities and hamper the state’s competitiveness in science, technology, engineering.
“Texas needs its public universities to continue being the economic engines driving the state, not mere vehicles for governor Abbott’s political agenda,” said Brian Evans, president of AAUP-AFT faculty-led union defending professors’ rights.
“Regardless of background, Texas professors drive innovation and prepare the next generation of leaders to join the workforce,” said Evans, emphasising that university medical centres, and their patients, would be worst hit.
On top of halting new H-1B petitions, Abbott ordered all public universities to submit reports including all new and renewed visa petitions in 2025, the country of origin and total number of current employees sponsored through the visa, alongside job descriptions and visa expiration dates.
What’s more, institutions must demonstrate they made efforts to provide Texan candidates with “reasonable opportunity” to apply for each position before it was filled by an H-1B visa holder.
Texas needs its public universities to continue being the economic engines driving the state, not mere vehicles for governor Abbott’s political agenda
Brian Evans, AAUP-AFT
As of September last year, UT Southwestern Medical Centre and Texas A&M University were the top higher educational employers of H-1B visa holders, hiring 220 and 210 individuals respectively, according to federal immigration data.
Two days after Abbott’s directive, Florida state university system’s board of governors took steps towards enacting a ban on new H-1B hiring until January 2027, with the proposals currently open for a two-week public comment period.
Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis has been a vocal critic of the visa program, calling on the state’s universities in October last year to “pull the plug” on H-1B hiring. At the time, nearly 400 workers at Florida state universities were employed through the visa.
As the H-1B visa program falls under federal immigration policy, the freeze implemented by Abbott prohibits public institutions in Texas submitting visa applications, rather than impacting the overall H-1B visa system.
To this end, professors have said the move will damage Texas’ competitiveness and lead to a loss of talent to other states.
“Messing with the H-1B system was a bad idea when President Trump first tried it,” said Evans: “It’s even more reckless when it’s a governor undermining his own state’s workforce.”
The moves by Texas and Florida follow dramatic changes to H-1B visas by the federal government, including hiking the fee for certain petitions to $100,000 and overhauling the processing system to favour higher earners.
While the administration clarified the new $10K fee wouldn’t apply to international students and other visa holders changing status within the US, colleges have said it will severely damage the recruitment of international faculty across US higher education.
Under former regulations, US public institutions were not subject to limits on how many H-1B visa holders they could hire. The three-year visas are granted to those with at least a bachelor’s degree and jobs meeting the criteria are typically highly skilled tech and research-based positions.
