{"id":548224,"date":"2026-01-28T03:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/548224\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:00:25","slug":"gov-abbott-freezes-h-1b-visa-petitions-at-texas-universities-state-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/548224\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Abbott freezes H-1B visa petitions at Texas universities, state agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday charged all Texas public universities and state agencies<\/a> to freeze new H-1B visa applications until the next legislative session ends in 2027. <\/p>\n

Under Abbott\u2019s directive, public universities and state agencies cannot initiate or file for new H-1B visas until May 31, 2027, without written permission from the Texas Workforce Commission. Abbott said the freeze will provide time for state lawmakers to create \u201cguardrails\u201d for the H-1B program and for the federal government to implement its reforms. <\/p>\n

State and federal leaders have increasingly scrutinized the H-1B program and how employers, including higher education institutions, hospital systems and public school districts, sponsor foreign workers in specialized fields.<\/p>\n

Abbott has said he wants to identify what jobs H-1B visa holders are filling that cannot be filled by Texans. In his Tuesday letter to state agency heads, he suggested that some employers have failed to make \u201cgood-faith efforts\u201d to recruit U.S. workers before seeking foreign workers. <\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, the Trump administration is seeking to transform the H-1B visa program, including a $100,000 fee for new petitioners and a new weighted system for awarding visas that prioritizes workers with higher pay and skills. <\/p>\n

\u201cRather than serving its intended purpose of attracting the best and brightest individuals from around the world to our nation to fill truly specialized and unmet labor needs, the program has too often been used to fill jobs that otherwise could \u2014 and should \u2014 have been filled by Texans,\u201d Abbott wrote in his letter. <\/p>\n

Dallas ISD is one of the biggest sponsors of H-1B visas among public school districts in the U.S., The Dallas Morning News reported in 2023<\/a>. Federal data shows the district sponsors 230 H-1B visas as of Sept. 30, 2025. It is unclear whether Abbott\u2019s directive will impact public school districts. Dallas ISD officials declined to comment on the letter Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/p>\n

According to federal data,<\/a> UT Southwestern Medical Center is the second largest education sponsor of H-1B visas in Texas, with 228. Other institutions that have large numbers of H-1B visa holders include: the Texas A&M flagship with 214, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston with 171, and the University of Texas at Austin with 169.<\/p>\n

Other Dallas-Fort Worth area districts and universities that were among the top H-1B visa sponsors in Texas include the University of Texas at Dallas with 73, the University of Texas at Arlington with 57, and the University of North Texas with 42. Southern Methodist University has 31.<\/p>\n

Brian Evans, president of the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors, described Abbott\u2019s directive as \u201cundermining his own state\u2019s workforce.\u201d He added that the order will \u201cdiminish the value of teaching and research\u201d at higher education<\/a> institutions, particularly medical centers. <\/p>\n

\u201cPatients don\u2019t care where their doctors and nurses are from, as long as they\u2019re getting the best possible care,\u201d Evans said in a release. \u201cTexas needs its public universities to continue being the economic engines driving the state, not mere vehicles for Governor Abbott\u2019s political agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his Tuesday letter, Abbott directed all state agencies to provide the TWC with information about its H-1B visa sponsorships by March, including how many an agency currently sponsors, the countries of origins of the visa holders and job classifications and descriptions for them. He also asked for documentation that demonstrates \u201cefforts to provide qualified Texas candidates with a reasonable opportunity to apply for each position filled by a H-1B visa holder.\u201d <\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s letter comes a day after the Quorum Report <\/a>revealed that the governor asked the Texas A&M University System campuses to submit a list of all employees on H-1B visas, including their countries of origin and roles, by the end of the day Monday.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Abbott told conservative radio host Mark Davis on his Dallas-based show that he doesn\u2019t \u201csee any reason\u201d why H-1B visa holders would need to work in Texas public schools, although he acknowledged some may have special skill sets. <\/p>\n

He echoed some of the Trump administration\u2019s earlier comments about H-1B visa fraud, alleging without evidence that some workers who were admitted during the Biden administration or earlier have overstayed their visas. Trump has recently qualified that he believes foreign labor is needed to employ \u201ccertain talents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston Chronicle reporter Samantha Ketterer and Dallas Morning News staff writer Silas Allen contributed to this report. <\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.<\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday charged all Texas public universities and state agencies to freeze new H-1B visa…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":548225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,76159,140441,407,65389,5026,1141,8734,409,80,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-548224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-ed-lab-college-careers","11":"tag-ed-lab-politics-policy","12":"tag-education","13":"tag-education-lab","14":"tag-greg-abbott","15":"tag-health-care","16":"tag-higher-education","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-tx","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115970495178930942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}