What’s New
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Wednesday directed the governing board for the state’s public universities to “pull the plug” on hiring employees on H-1B visas — the system that allows thousands of foreign researchers and professionals with in-demand skill sets to work on American campuses.
“We need to make sure our citizens here in Florida are first in line for job opportunities,” DeSantis, a Republican, said at a news conference.
Donald W. Landry, interim president of the University of Florida, said at the news conference that his institution endorses the review of H-1Bs initiated by the governor and will conduct its own review.
The Details
DeSantis said Florida’s universities have engaged in “abuse” of these visas — because they’ve hired people for nonspecialized positions that shouldn’t require foreign talent.
DeSantis called out specific H-1B hires within Florida’s public university system, such as a computer-application coordinator from China, an assistant swim coach from Spain, and a psychologist and counselor from the United Kingdom. “I don’t understand. How is that specialized knowledge that only someone from these places can do?” DeSantis said.
The University of Florida employs 156 people on H-1B visas, ranking 23rd among all educational employers. Stanford ranks first, employing 500 H-1B recipients.
In the 2025 fiscal year, the University of Florida filed and got approval for 70 new H-1B applications. In 2024, the university filed 145 new H-1B visa applications, all of which were approved.
Landry said UF only rarely uses H-1B visas to employ people. Many of the employees are the university’s international students, he said, who account for 2 percent of student enrollment. “Occasionally some bright light might be good enough for the faculty, and then we will try to retain the person into whom we’ve invested so much,” he said.
Landry said he believes UF’s use of H-1B visas is the exception to a broader pattern of misuse. From “personal experience at another institution,” Landry said he’s seen that “H-1B is not handled in a pristine fashion.”
Landry was a member of the faculty at Columbia University for more than three decades before his appointment as UF’s interim president. Columbia has 204 H-1B employees. (Columbia did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication.)
The Backdrop
The H-1B program has recently become a target of the Trump administration. In September, the administration added a new $100,000 fee to be paid by American employers for H-1B visa applications — in an attempt to dissuade them from hiring foreign workers. Later guidance clarified that the fee only applies to H-1B hires that come from outside the United States; in other words, students who are already in the country on a different type of visa could transition to H-1B status and not be subject to the fee.
Leaders of higher education have criticized the fee, saying that it will hinder their ability to bring in talented faculty from abroad. “What colleges and universities are so good at doing is identifying talent from everywhere in this country and around the world, being able to bring them to campus, nurturing their talent, unleashing their potential, and then we all benefit,” said Miriam Feldblum, president and co-founder of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.
Colleges and professional schools hired 22,525 people nationwide through H-1B visas in the 2024 fiscal year.
The Trump administration has also proposed new restrictions on student visas that would reduce how long students are allowed to be in the country, and has more closely scrutinized the optional practical training program that allows student-visa holders to work for a limited time after graduation.
The Stakes
College leaders have expressed concern that without H-1B hires, they will lose an essential supply of expert talent, particularly in health care and engineering fields.
Last week, the American Council on Education and 32 other higher-ed organizations sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security asking for colleges to be exempt from the fee. H-1B workers are “crucial to the U.S. economy and national security,” the letter argues.
