Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling on the Florida Board of Governors to "pull the plug" on the use of H-1B visas, raising questions about how this would affect state universities and colleges, their faculty and students.
The H-1B program enables employers to bring in foreign professionals to fill jobs when U.S.-born workers are hard to find. H-1B visa holders must have a bachelor's degree or higher.
But during a news conference on Wednesday on the University of South Florida Tampa campus, DeSantis said the program has been exploited by companies, as well as higher education institutions.
ALSO READ: DeSantis tells state universities to 'pull the plug' on hiring foreign workers through H-1B
He accused them of using it to employ foreign workers "at a discount" rather than hire qualified Americans.
The sentiment echoes those of the Trump administration, which introduced new regulations to the federal H-1B program earlier this year, including raising application fees to $100,000 from the previous $2,000-5,000.
Universities and colleges have enjoyed an exemption from the annual cap on visa applications of 85,000 that commercial employers must follow.
But, now, higher education leaders worry changes at the federal level and state pressure could stifle what's been a source of specialized talent and cultural exchange in classrooms.
To understand what this could all mean, "Florida Matters Live & Local" host Matthew Peddie spoke with Politico's Florida education reporter Andrew Atterbury.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
ALSO READ: Trump's $100K fee for H-1B visas creates chaos, confusion for employers and workers
Just a little bit of context before we start, there are 1,900 employers in Florida that sponsor visa workers. If you zoom in a little more, 78 of them are in education. They sponsor about 677 H-1B visa holders. And the top three H-1B sponsors in that group are (the University of Florida), University of Miami and USF. Is this a legitimate education and hiring issue, or is this more being done to curry favor with Donald Trump and his supporters?
That's an interesting question. This definitely aligns with what Florida has been doing. They really have taken a lot of, I think, a really hard look at higher education in the last couple of years. It really started with outlawing spending on diversity, equity, inclusion. They've really looked hard at curriculum. They've looked at general education. They've got rid of sociology as a core class.
They're really doing a lot of different things, and faculty is a big part of that as well. They changed tenure review to make sure there is review of tenure every five years. People could lose their jobs because of that too. So, Florida has taken a really hard look at what's being taught in higher education and who is teaching it.
So can the governor legally say to universities stop hiring under this program? Because there are already protections for United States citizens and legal residents built into the H-1B program.
It seems like the DeSantis administration is kind of wanting schools to lean more towards the O-1 visas. You know, I'm a higher education reporter, not a huge immigration reporter, but we're all kind of immigration reporters at this point, because it's an issue that's really taken into a lot of different phases and realms.
But it seems like he was seemingly upset with the jobs that these visa recipients were doing, right? Like he was mentioning it was like marketing or graphic design. So, looking at some of the differences in visas, like the O-1 visa that is for individuals with extraordinary abilities, and if you look at the differences, the other visa is for specialty occupations, which is, I think, linguistically, it's quite a difference between extraordinary ability and sciences and arts.
So it seems like what DeSantis just wants to do is push schools towards that visa instead. But how does that work? As far as, like, regulation, I really don't know, because I think that would have to come through the BOG.
And when you say BOG, you mean Board of Governors?
Yes, the Board of Governors. And how would you write that out? I'm not really sure, other than what he just said yesterday, which is, pull the plug. And what does that mean? Like I mentioned earlier, what does that mean? Pull the plug? Does that mean no more of these jobs at all can go overseas? And how do you write that out?
Do you know of other states talking about this? Is this something where Florida is taking the lead?
I haven't seen this in other states, so I really it's something I do try to follow. Florida and some of these other states, like Georgia and Texas and even Utah, sometimes they're aligned on a lot of these different higher education and even K-12 issues. And this one though, that with the visas, I haven't seen other states do that, and it seems like DeSantis has kind of been laying the groundwork for this, because he's mentioned this a couple times this year, like in July and in August too, he's taken aim at the H-1B program, and he's saying it's like indentured servitude.
And that was for tech companies back in July. So he's really made a point to say that this is something he disagrees with, which is, like you mentioned earlier, aligned with the Trump administration right now.
If all H-1B visa holders at UF, for example, were to go — all 156 of them, based on the latest numbers there — were to leave. What impact would that have on the University of Florida?
I was talking to a union leader yesterday. I mean, that could be an entire department that could be wiped out, depending on how these employees are.
I don't think it's just like, you know, one group or other that's like, oh, or even one specialty, as the governor mentioned, it's positions that are all over the map. And you have to think that'd be unprecedented, to have 400 jobs like, cleared just like that. That'd be hard to believe, and it would be really difficult, I imagine, to fill those jobs.
And in academia, they do welcome perspectives, and having people from other countries and fill some of these roles is good for, you know, academics as a whole. So people are concerned about that.
This story was compiled from interviews conducted by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
