Gov. Greg Abbott has put higher education and specialized health care, including cancer treatment, at critical risk, according to advocates.
On Jan. 27, Abbott launched an investigation into the H-1B visa program – a temporary work visa for nonimmigrants – and ordered public institutions and state agencies to freeze new H-1B petitions, citing alleged abuse of the program. In a letter sent to state agencies, Abbott wrote that U.S. employers are taking advantage of the program, noting that “the program has too often been used to fill jobs that otherwise could – and should – have been filled by Texans.”
Now, public institutions and state agencies must submit a detailed report to the Texas Workforce Commission about all currently employed H-1B visa holders, including country of origin, job descriptions, and proof that the institution attempted to hire a qualified Texan candidate before an H-1B petition was filed, according to the letter.
H-1B visa holders are highly skilled individuals, often with advanced degrees, that are usually hired for research and teaching positions, immigration attorney Jason Finkelman said. He said the program has a cap of 85,000 visas per year, which usually leads to a lottery system due to high demand.
Finkelman said, however, universities are exempt from the cap and lottery system, noting how Abbott’s directive “makes absolutely no sense, because Congress wrote this rule specifically to allow U.S. universities to really use this program to get that talent they need.”
Abbott wrote in the letter that it is necessary to halt the program because of “bad actors” who have allegedly exploited it, noting how “in the most egregious schemes, employers have even fired American workers and replaced them with H-1B employees, often at lower wages.”
Finkelman said he believes the claim is not credible because the program was created with a mission to protect American workers and not exploit foreign workers. He said that one safeguard is the prevailing wage requirement, which requires employers to pay H-1B visa employees at least the local average wage.
“A policy like this will damage Texas universities’ standing as a leader in the field of higher education, because if they can’t hire the best researchers, professors positioned from around the world, that talent is just going to go to other U.S. universities,” Finkelman said.
The University of Texas at Austin, along with the other 13 UT institutions, have submitted the information requested in the governor’s letter, according to the University of Texas System.
“The institutions are complying with the Governor’s directive by freezing new H-1B applications and will await further guidance on how the submission of requests to the Texas Workforce Commission for future hires may work,” the UT system wrote to the Chronicle.
UT has sponsored more than 800 H-1B visas since 2020, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Brian Evans, president of the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors, said the timing of the freeze is difficult because institutions are likely already recruiting faculty for the fall, creating uncertainty about how roles will be filled if there are no qualified U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
“This will greatly impair our ability in Texas to [have] the research leaders that we have, the universities that we have,” Evans said. “We want to be the economic engines for the state and hiring people to fill the advanced skills that we need to do. That is what H-1B visas are for.”
Evans said the freeze could have negative consequences for both education and health care, noting many H-1B holders at public universities are physicians and specialists working at medical institutions like UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.
In 2025, UT Southwestern Medical Center sponsored 228 H-1B visas and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center sponsored 171, according to USCIS. Evans said many H-1B visa holders in these institutions are qualified health care professionals with advanced degrees that cannot be found in the U.S.
“This is going to greatly harm the ability for specialized health care in Texas, including cancer treatment,” Evans said.
This article appears in February 13 • 2026.