Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) has directed state agencies to freeze H-1B visa petitions, citing recent instances of abuse and the federal governments review of the program.
In a letter to agency leaders, Abbott wrote, “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,” the letter read. “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.”
“Texas state agencies and institutions of higher education collectively employ hundreds of thousands of Texans and have a significant role in shaping the State’s labor market,” Abbott added. “State government must lead by example and ensure that employment opportunities—particularly those funded with taxpayer dollars—are filled by Texans first.”
The letter goes on to direct agency heads to cease any initiation or new petition to “sponsor a nonimmigrant worker under the federal H-1B visa program until the end of the Texas Legislature’s 90th Regular Session on May 31, 2027.”
Abbott’s directive aligns with President Trump’s September proclamation imposing restrictions on immigrant workers. “The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor,” the proclamation declared.
