Citing the need to protect “Texas workers and Texas employers,” Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered all state agencies and universities to stop review of H-1B visa applications immediately.
“The economy of Texas should work for the benefit of Texas workers and Texas employees,” he said in a letter to agency heads. “Since assuming office, I have prioritized growing Texas’ economy by making this State a premier location for job seekers and job creators alike, while investing in education and workforce training to ensure Texans are equipped to fill the high-paying, in-demand jobs of today and tomorrow. In light of recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa program, and amid the federal government’s ongoing review of that program to ensure American jobs are going to American workers, I am directing all state agencies to immediately freeze new H-1B visa petitions as outlined in this letter.”
He warned about the “bad actors” who have used the H-1B visa program to replace American workers, mostly offering lower wages to foreigners, and not using the program to supplement American workers as intended.
He continued, “As noted in President Trump’s proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, the federal H-1B visa program was created to supplement the United States’ workforce— not to replace it. Evidence suggests that bad actors have exploited this program by failing to make good-faith efforts to recruit qualified U.S. workers before seeking to use foreign labor. In the most egregious schemes, employers have even fired American workers and replaced them with H-1B employees, often at lower wages. Rather 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—and should— have been filled by Texans.”
He also ordered agencies and universities to give detailed reports on H-1B visa activities over the last year. The number of new and renewed petitions, the workers’ countries of origin and more are to be provided.
The H-1B program, a federal program is supposed to let U.S. employers hire foreign professionals in specialty occupations when no American workers are available Often, employers simply hire foreigners at lower wages and dismiss Americans, sometimes requiring them to train their own replacements.
His new crackdown is similar to that of Project Firewall, which the Department of Labor launched in November, the report said.
That seeks to investigate visa cases, impose fines, recover wages owed to workers, assess civil money penalties, and “temporarily restrict employers from engaging with the foreign labor visa program in the future,” the Examiner reported.
President Trump recently imposed a $100,000 fee for new visas.
Abbott is not the first governor to take action on the visa program. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered a crackdown on H-1Bs in October.
Abbott said the program will allow time for the Texas Legislature “to establish statutory guardrails for future employment practices … .”
