Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered all state agencies to immediately halt new H-1B visa petitions, citing recent reports of systemic abuse within the federal program and the ongoing review by the U.S. government to ensure American workers are prioritized.
The directive follows an investigation by Sara Gonzales that uncovered widespread potential fraud in Texas’s H-1B system. Gonzales revealed how companies have exploited the program by failing to recruit qualified U.S. workers before seeking foreign labor.
Gonzales focused on two companies: 3Bees Technologies Inc., which had 27 approved H-1B beneficiaries in 2022 and 19 petitions denied the following year, and Qubitz Tech Systems with 12 approved beneficiaries last year. Her visits to these companies’ supposed offices — one a vacant construction site and the other a prison-like room with a single chair — highlighted questionable practices.
“Once you start scraping data from H-1B databases, you immediately see these patterns,” Gonzales stated in her report. “The biggest question is: If we found this with simple Google searches and follow-up, why hasn’t U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services taken action?”
Under Abbott’s order, state agencies are prohibited from filing new H-1B petitions without explicit permission from the Texas Workforce Commission. By March 27, public universities and state agencies must report on current H-1B sponsors, countries of origin for sponsored workers, visa expiration dates, and efforts to ensure Texan candidates were given opportunities.
Abbott emphasized that “state government must lead by example and ensure employment opportunities — particularly those funded with taxpayer dollars — are filled by Texans first.”
The H-1B program permits U.S. employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialized positions that American citizens cannot fill, typically for up to three years with potential extensions.
Texas has seen over 41,500 H-1B visa approvals for fiscal year 2025, including sponsors such as Oracle America Inc., Tesla Inc., AT&T Services Inc., Hewlett Packard, American Airlines, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
The move aligns with longstanding concerns from lawmakers across party lines about H-1B fraud, with numerous proposals to reform or even abolish the program under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
