{"id":138720,"date":"2026-01-26T19:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/138720\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T19:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:05:08","slug":"gov-greg-abbott-wants-texas-universities-schools-to-disclose-information-on-h-1b-visa-hirings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/138720\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott wants Texas universities, schools to disclose information on H-1B visa hirings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> said Monday that his administration is examining whether Texas taxpayer dollars are being used in connection with employees working under H-1B visas at public K-12 schools and universities.<\/p>\n

Internal emails obtained by Quorum Report show the governor\u2019s office asked Texas A&M University System leaders Friday to provide data on employees working under H-1B visas, including their roles and country of origin, by close of business Monday.<\/p>\n

Abbott told Mark Davis, a conservative radio talk show host, Monday that the state has inquiries out to public schools and universities and expects to announce an \u201caction plan\u201d later this week based on what is learned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see any reason why we need any H-1B visa employees in our public schools in the state of Texas. But we\u2019re going to find out if there\u2019s some unique skill set or whatever the case may be,\u201d Abbott said.<\/p>\n

He also suggested that some visa holders may have been admitted before or during the Biden administration and may have overstayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose, again, are the type of people that the Trump administration is trying to remove,\u201d Abbott said.<\/p>\n

The request follows reporting by conservative news site The Dallas Express on Thursday that it had sought public records related to Texas A&M University\u2019s use of H-1B visas for months and filed a complaint with the Texas attorney general before receiving the information. <\/p>\n

H-1B visas let employers hire foreign workers for specialized jobs that usually require at least a bachelor\u2019s degree. Public universities and academic medical centers often use the visas to hire professors, researchers, doctors and other highly trained staff. Federal immigration data show some of the state\u2019s largest education-sector employers of H-1B visa holders include Dallas ISD as well as academic medical centers, such as UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

The Texas Tribune reached out to the governor\u2019s office and the Texas A&M University System for comment, as well as several University of Texas System institutions to ask whether they received requests for visa information from the governor\u2019s office. They did not immediately respond. Several schools, including Texas A&M University and the University of Texas-Austin, were closed Monday due to winter weather.<\/p>\n

Higher education advocates say restricting universities\u2019 ability to hire international faculty and researchers could have economic consequences for Texas and weaken the state\u2019s innovation pipeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has made U.S. higher education the best in the world is that we have been able to attract the best people for these positions,\u201d said Miriam Feldblum, co-founder and CEO of the Presidents\u2019 Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a national coalition of college and university leaders focused on immigration policy.<\/p>\n

She added that recent federal policies, including a $100,000 fee for some new H-1B hires from abroad, already threaten U.S. universities\u2019 competitiveness.<\/p>\n

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University System, UT Southwestern Medical Center and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that his administration is examining whether Texas taxpayer dollars are being used in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[392,289,287,1563,1564,27,29,293,28],"class_list":["post-138720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-greg-abbott","tag-higher-education","tag-politics","tag-public-education","tag-state-government","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}