Texas Governor Greg Abbott orders freeze on H-1B visas across state agencies and universities | World News

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an immediate freeze on new H-1B visa petitions at all Texas state agencies and public universities and launched a statewide review of what his office described as possible abuse of the federal visa program.

In a letter to educational institutions and government agencies on Tuesday, Abbott said the decision is intended to ensure that jobs funded by Texas taxpayers are prioritized for local workers. “The Texas economy must work for the benefit of Texas workers and Texas employers,” he wrote, announcing that all new H-1B petitions should be suspended pending further evaluation.

Citing “recent reports of abuses in the federal H-1B visa program,” Abbott said the freeze would continue while both Texas officials and the federal government review whether American jobs have been displaced. “I direct all government agencies to immediately freeze new H-1B visa petitions as specified in this letter,” he said.

The directive applies to all state institutions overseen by governor-appointed individuals, as well as public institutions of higher education, according to a media release. According to the order, no new H-1B petitions may be submitted without written approval from the Texas Workforce Commission until the close of the 90th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature on May 31, 2027.

Abbott also instructed institutions and universities to submit detailed reports by March 27, 2026. These must include documentation showing the number of H-1B workers they sponsor, their job classification, their country of origin, and their efforts to recruit qualified Texan candidates before they return to the foreign workforce.

The governor said the review would give lawmakers time to establish what he called “legal guardrails” for future hiring practices involving federal visa holders and allow the Trump administration to pursue broader immigration reforms.

The move follows comments Abbott made a day earlier in a Dallas-based radio interview in which he questioned the use of government funds to employ H-1B visa holders at public institutions. “We are examining the extent to which Texas taxpayer dollars were used to pay any of these people,” he said.

Questioning the need for foreign workers in public education, Abbott added: “For example, what work do H-1B visa staff do in our public schools in the State of Texas that we can’t do here in our own public schools? I don’t see any reason why we need H-1B visa workers in our public schools in the State of Texas.”

Acknowledging that the H-1B program is federally administered, Abbott said Texas is considering its authority where government funding is at stake. “This is a federal program, just a federal program. This is not a state program,” he said.

In his letter, Abbott argued that the H-1B system is intended to “supplement, not replace, the workforce of the United States,” citing President Donald Trump’s announcement restricting the entry of some nonimmigrant workers. He alleged that some employers “failed to make a good faith effort to recruit qualified U.S. workers” before seeking to hire abroad.

Rather than attracting “the best and brightest individuals from around the world,” the program “is often used to fill jobs that could and should be filled by Texans,” Abbott wrote.

The H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialized roles that often require advanced education or technical expertise. It is widely used by tech companies, hospitals and universities, and has long been a flashpoint in national immigration debates.

Texas’ decision represents one of the most far-reaching state-level actions targeting H-1B use at public institutions and comes amid renewed federal scrutiny of employment-based visas under the Trump administration.

(With inputs from IANS)