"First, President Trump placed a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications in September. Then a month later, Florida's governor Ron DeSantis urged his university board to "pull the plug" on visa-holding employees. And now, this week, Texas governor Greg Abbott has ordered his own one-year visa freeze and Florida's university board is set to consider a similar one today."
"U.S. colleges and universities hired more than 16,000 workers on approved H-1B visas in the first three quarters of 2025-making up about 5 percent of the overall total, an Inside Higher Ed data analysis showed. Nearly half of them were at just 50 institutions, six of which were located in Texas and Florida. Many of those roles across the sector were at research and medical centers."
President Trump's September $100,000 fee on new H-1B applications, combined with state actions such as Florida pushing university bans and Texas ordering a one-year visa freeze, would restrict new H-1B hires. The H-1B program covers specialty-occupation roles, and U.S. colleges and universities hired over 16,000 H-1B workers in the first three quarters of 2025, about 5 percent of the national total, with nearly half concentrated at 50 institutions including centers in Texas and Florida. Many affected positions are at research and medical centers. These moves threaten university research capacity, academic freedom, and institutional autonomy.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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