{"id":145662,"date":"2026-01-31T20:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T20:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/145662\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T20:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T20:08:08","slug":"ted-cruz-questions-dallas-isds-use-of-h-1b-visas-after-2-5m-spending-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/145662\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Cruz Questions Dallas ISD\u2019s Use Of H-1B Visas After $2.5M Spending Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said he \u201ccan\u2019t imagine any reason why Dallas ISD should need any H-1Bs,\u201d referring to the district\u2019s use of the federal H-1B visa program.<\/p>\n

Cruz made the remarks<\/a> January 29 on the Texas Bullpen Podcast, just before records published by The Dallas Express<\/a> showed that Dallas Independent School District spent roughly $2.5 million of federally distributed taxpayer dollars on H-1B visa legal services between 2020 and late September 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I think that\u2019s a very fair concern to raise. I can\u2019t imagine any reason why Dallas ISD should need any H-1Bs,\u201d Cruz said. He added that while research universities might justify limited use of the visas for a \u201creally, you know, brilliant physicist,\u201d he questioned their necessity in a K-12 setting.<\/p>\n

The district records, obtained<\/a> by The Dallas Express, show 599 H-1B fee-related transactions during the period, with payments made to an immigration law firm for processing labor applications and related services. Federal immigration data indicate DISD employed 1,272 H-1B visa workers over the past five years, reported. The order does not apply to K-12 school districts, including DISD.<\/p>\n

In a 2025 interview with The Dallas Express<\/a>, DISD Trustee Ben Mackey said the district uses H-1B visas only for positions designated as critical shortages and after documenting an inability to fill them with certified applicants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said he \u201ccan\u2019t imagine any reason why Dallas ISD should need any H-1Bs,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,3745,104,11521,103,7883,61008],"class_list":{"0":"post-145662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-express","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-isd","12":"tag-dallas-news","13":"tag-ted-cruz","14":"tag-texas-bullpen-podcast"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145662","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=145662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}