Texas Governor Greg Abott has followed in the footsteps of Florida Gov Ron DeSantis and ordered all state agencies and public universities to stop sponsoring news H-1B visa petitions for highly skilled foreign workers.

Issuing a serious statement on X, Abbott adopted the “Texans come first” agenda as he spoke out about the state’s taxpayers losing out on jobs to international workers. “I’m directing state agencies and universities to freeze new H-1B visa petitions. Texas taxpayers invest billions to train our workforce. Those jobs should go to Texans,” he wrote on X Tuesday (US time).

“Texas is the strongest economic engine in America. We’re going to keep it that way.”

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Texas Gov bans new H-1B visa petitions

As per the Houston Chronicle article Abbott attached to the same tweet, the Republican politician has written a letter to agency heads, pushing for the H-1B ban on new visa petitions. The move aims to give state lawmakers time to consider “guardrails” for the federal “specialty occupations” visa program

The drastic measure also takes into account the several policy changes put into effect by the Donald Trump administration, including the new blanket $100,000 fee for new petitioners and the replacement of the H-1B lottery with a weighted system prioritising high-paid workers.

“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,” the Texas governor said, as per the Houston Chronicle.

“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.”

Sweeping demands established in Texas Gov’s H-1B ban letter

As per Abbott’s letter, no state agency or higher education public institution should rally behind new H-1B workers without the Texas Workforce Commission’s written permission.

On top of that, the Texas governor has even ordered agencies and universities the number of new and renewal petitions they submitted last years and how many H-1B visa holders they are currently sponsoring by March 2026. The report must also include other information about the foreign workers, including their place of origin and what they are doing.

That’s not all, to ensure a “reasonable opportunity” was offered for qualified Texas candidates to apply for the same positions, the Texas Republican has demanded documentation proving the same.

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University of Houston and Texas A&M University System officials are ready to comply with the order. The former even estimated that the school brings in less than 100 H-1B visa holders a year for roles in STEM-related fields, information technology, research and laboratory positions and postdoctoral research appointments.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M University revealed that it had already stopped sponsoring new H-1B petitions after Trump’s imposition of the $100,000 fee on the work visas last year.

Federal data cited by US reports suggested that the majority of H-1B workers in Texas are employed at private companies. On the flip side, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas sponsors the most number (228) of H-1B holders of any public university.

Public K-12 schools also heavily rely on H-1B visas to curb teacher shortages. According to the Houston Chronicle, those schools have not been hit by Abbott’s H-1B ban order. 

On a similar path a proposed policy backed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis set to be introduced on Jan 29 by the by the State University System Board of Governors could bar the state’s universities from hiring new staff on H-1B visas until early 2027, as per Politico.

DeSantis has emerged as one of the biggest critics of the H-1B visa program, repeatedly branding it as a “scam” or “fraud.”

Although the formal H-1B hiring ban has yet to go into effect, DeSantis said in October, “Universities across the country are importing foreign workers on H-1B visas instead of hiring Americans who are qualified and available to do the job. We will not tolerate H-1B abuse in Florida institutions. That’s why I have directed the Florida Board of Governors to end this practice.”