JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Governor Ron DeSantis is going after college and university employees working in Florida on H-1B visas. <\/p>\n
The work visas are intended to help companies, or in this case, schools, hire highly specialized workers with college degrees. <\/p>\n
\u201cOf all employers, they are the ones that would be most responsible for why they can\u2019t find what they need,\u201d said DeSantis.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n According to the Governor\u2019s Office, the University of North Florida currently employs only 19 H-1B workers, but others, like the University of Florida, which is planning to build a graduate campus in Jacksonville, employ many more.<\/p>\n UF employs nearly 500 H-1B workers, many of whom work jobs the Governor argued could easily be filled by American workers.<\/p>\n \u201cAssistant professors in math and engineering from China. Again, why aren\u2019t we producing math and engineering folks?\u201d said DeSantis.<\/p>\n But Robert Cassanello, President of the United Faculty of Florida, argued it\u2019s not as simple as the Governor is making it out to be.<\/p>\n \u201cHe speaks with a great deal of ignorance about how all of this stuff works when he says, Oh, we could just find a math professor on the street to teach this class. How does he know that?\u201d said Cassanello.<\/p>\n The details of the Governor\u2019s proposal are still murky, and it\u2019s unclear whether he intends to force Florida schools to purge all current H-1B workers, or simply stop hiring new ones.<\/p>\n