Texas Governor Proposes Ban on H-1B Visa Holders in Public Classrooms

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has laid out plans to potentially ban the employment of H-1B visa holders and “foreign” presence at large as part of a sweeping crackdown targeting public classrooms in the US state. At a news conference in Austin earlier this week, he stressed that “foreign influence of any kind” had no place in the state’s classrooms, raising alarms about what he described as “indoctrination.” In recent years, the state’s public schools have emerged as the largest sponsors of the ‘specialty occupations’ non-immigrant H-1B visas, which help recruit high-skilled international workers in the US. Official data released by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) over the past few years shows that Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD) employs more H-1B workers than any other school district. While Abbott insisted on Tuesday that they need to find Texans or Americans to educate students, Dallas ISD clarified in a statement that it only hired foreign nationals as teachers to fill staff shortages. “If the governor’s new expectation is to eliminate these teachers, then we’re going to need more Texans in the teaching pipeline,” the school district’s officials said, as quoted by local US news outlets Fox 4 News and The Dallas Morning News. As one of the top sponsors of H-1B visas in the state, Dallas ISD had 171 approved applications of the temporary non-immigrant work visa between July 31, 2025, and June 30, 2026. Abbott’s “anti-H-1B” view aligns with that of many fellow Republican lawmakers, who have proposed several bills pushing for a major overhaul of the work visa program. With President Donald Trump already making big moves to limit the program over claims that US employers are “abusing” it to replace American workers with “cheap foreign labour,” the Texas governor also suggested Tuesday (US time) that his “ban” could gradually expand to colleges and universities. Earlier this year, Greg Abbott ordered state agencies and public universities to pause filing new H-1B petitions. Additionally, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a visa fraud probe into dozens of North Texas businesses in April. Following in the footsteps of Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, Greg Abbott’s bid to ban H-1B employees in Texas’ public schools aims to bring the focus back on local Texas workers. “Exactly zero Texas public school employees should be here on H-1b visas,” he said during Tuesday’s news conference. “Bottom line is this foreign influence of any kind has no place in our classrooms.” While announcing the proposal in Austin, he stressed that state officials are “tired of the federal government not putting limits on who can come in under H-1Bs.” Citing the “federal government’s failure” to control the visa program, he asserted, “Texas is having to put our foot down, and that means making some tough decisions.” The Trump administration has repeatedly revised visa policies since the start of his second term in 2025. His immigration crackdown has included implementing expanded social media vetting and screening, which severely impacted the H-1B visa application and interview process. Numerous reports surfaced in India in December 2025, with thousands of H-1B workers and applicants complaining about being “stranded” away from their US workplaces due to subsequent visa interview delays and cancellations. In September 2025, the Trump government even signed a proclamation introducing a hefty $100,000 fee on new H-1B applications. However, repeated legal blows from US judges have resulted in the blanket fee requirement being blocked and branded unlawful. Other than that, the Trump administration has already eliminated the traditional H-1B lottery program in favour of a wage-weighted selection process to prioritise higher-paid and higher-skilled workers. According to a Newsweek analysis of USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub figures for total visa approvals by petitioner location in FY25, combined with the US Census Bureau’s 2024 estimates, a per-capita measure of how concentrated these work visa approvals are in each state shows large states like California, Texas and New York dominating the table. While California recorded the highest total number of approvals at more than 86,000, Texas and New York followed. Another recent analysis of federal labor data by LayoffHedge showed that while H-1B visa filings declined across most of the US between FY19 and FY25, applications rose in Texas’ Republican-led suburban districts. The study, looking at 6.9 million federal Labor Condition Applications (LCAs), revealed that all of America’s eight fastest-growing congressional districts demonstrating H-1B demand over the six years are represented by Republican lawmakers from Texas. Given Indian nationals’ domination over 70% of total H-1B approvals in recent years, social media users have even dubbed Texas a “mini-India” in light of the work visa trend surge. Frisco, a city in Texas, particularly became the centre of such changing demographics this year, with city council meetings also sounding the alarm of a potential “Indian takeover.” Frisco’s city data shows Asians (33.6%), which include Indians, as the second-largest racial group after White people (45.5%). Texans come first. 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. Texas is the strongest economic engine in America. We’re going to keep it that way.…— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 27, 2026 : This article is intended for informational purposes only and is based on publicly available immigration guidance. 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