Florida took another step Thursday to ban all of its public universities from hiring foreign workers on H-1B visas.
The state university system’s Board of Trustees will now seek public comment for two weeks on a proposal to ban the hiring of any new H-1B workers through Jan. 5. The committee’s vote to move forward with the proposal was a voice vote, with no objections heard from any committee member. The proposal will return to the full board for a vote after the public comment period.
If the bill takes effect, Florida would become the second state to ban the use of H-1B visas at public universities. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a one-year freeze earlier this week, a move that drew pushback from faculty and staff.
The state enacted the ban in September after President Trump imposed a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications (international workers who are already legal residents do not have to pay the fee). The next month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ordered the state’s universities to “cease the use of these H-1B visas.” Fourteen of the 17 members of the Board of Governors are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the State Senate.
DeSantis complained about professors coming from China, “should be Palestine” and other places. He added, “We need to make sure Florida citizens have access to jobs first.”
Universities use the program to hire teachers, physicians and researchers deemed necessary to meet the needs of healthcare, engineering and other professional careers. Some conservatives believe the program is being abused.
Discussion on the proposed ban lasted about 15 minutes Thursday, during which time no committee member strongly advocated for the policy. Much of the time was spent with the board’s lone faculty voting member and lone student voting member (neither of whom were committee members) reading out their objections to the move. Among their concerns: University system leaders plan to collect information about the H-1B program during the hiring moratorium, rather than gathering data before making a decision.
Schools and university systems “rely on the H-1B process to recruit world-class talent to our institutions,” said Kimberly Dunn, chair of the Statewide Faculty Senate Advisory Committee and a representative on the Faculty Council.
“Whether they are pediatric cancer surgeons or globally recognized researchers, these individuals directly contribute to the health, safety and economic success of Floridians,” Dunn said. “In many cases, H-1B visas are the only viable way to bring this level of expertise to our state.”
“Restricting our ability to recruit the best talent in the world could harm our system’s preeminence as a national leader,” Dunn added. She said the reputational damage caused by the ban could last beyond the one-year moratorium.
She urged the system to collect data before suspending hiring of new H-1B visa workers.
Carson Dyer, president of Florida State University’s student body and president of the Florida Student Association, said he believes “American taxpayer dollars should support hiring Americans whenever possible.”
“The difference for me is the mechanics chosen here,” Dyer said. “This is not a neutral reform; it is a clear limit on who we can consider, regardless of who is most qualified.”
He said the ban undermines Florida State’s commitment to merit-based admissions and goes against other actions Florida has taken, including scaling back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives because “we believe they risk interfering with merit-based admissions.”
“The practical effect of this provision is to exclude other highly qualified candidates before assessing individual merit,” Dyer said. “This is important because the labor market for senior research talent is global.”
He said Trump’s $100,000 fee was implemented “to deter overuse and protect American workers.” He noted that Elon Musk and other entrepreneurs came to the United States from overseas.
“Top candidates are not going to put their careers on hold to wait for a certain state,” Dyer said. “When Florida is no longer considered for the entire recruiting cycle, those candidates will accept offers elsewhere.”
According to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services database, the federal government approved 253 H-1B visa holders to work at the University of Florida last fiscal year, including about 110 each at Florida State University and the University of South Florida, 47 at the University of Central Florida, and smaller numbers at other public institutions.
University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues told the committee that if the H-1B hiring moratorium is approved, his office and the universities “will study the costs of the H-1B program and how our universities use the program, including identifying areas where the program is currently used and whether there is a strategic need in those areas.”
He also said the study would examine whether employers used the scheme to bring in workers “who are paid below market wages.” He added that the system plans to work with universities to identify other areas that should be included in the study.
Alan Levine, chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee that considered the proposal, appeared to acknowledge that imposing a blunt, year-long ban on H-1B workers could cause problems.
“I would encourage the university, if there are unforeseen issues that arise, especially in areas like the medical school, faculty, engineering, where we have contracts with the Department of Defense, things like that, if there are issues that become a concern to you, bring those issues to the chancellor so we can make a decision on how to address it,” Levine said. “We can always bring the team back together if needed.”
“There’s certainly a shortage of physicians, especially the need for high-acuity professionals in health care and medicine, and understandably there’s also a problem in certain STEM fields like engineering,” Levine said. “The goal here is to gather information.”
