On Jan. 27, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a freeze on new H-1B visas for all Texas state agencies through May 31 next year. This order will affect public hospitals, research initiatives and universities such as UTD, preventing the hire of international students in public sector positions and skilled workers from abroad at the university.
An H-1B visa is a form of authorization to work in skilled positions in the U.S. mainly granted to individuals from abroad with bachelor’s degrees or higher. In Texas, over 40,000 individuals currently have H-1B visa sponsorship, making up approximately 1% of the Texas workforce. Since most international students seek out H-1B visas during their transition from university to the workforce, the freeze is expected to hit UTD’s international community hard. With an international student population of 44.59% pursuing graduate degrees and 4.86% pursuing undergraduate degrees, UTD has the greatest concentration of international students of any Texas university.
“I can see this affecting my career path in a way,” political science junior Jesus Carillo said. “As of right now, I’m not an F-1 student but I am in asylum and that asylum will probably go away next year once I graduate. I could see this effectively harming my way into any sort of status in the United States because of the fact that they want to hire workers from Texas and dissuade international students from coming to the U.S.”
F-1 visas are primarily granted to students from abroad coming to obtain bachelor’s and graduate degrees at U.S. universities. These visa holders make up the majority of international students at UTD anticipated to be affected by the H-1B freeze after graduation, when their F-1 visas expire and they are required to obtain new authorization to work in the U.S. Currently, UTD has not issued a statement to international students regarding the freeze.
“I used to work with UTD students who are on F-1 visas and are going to an H-1B and seeking professions all within the Dallas area,” Carillo said. “I feel like that big international community that we have at UTD is going to no longer seek UTD as a place to go because of the impact that this is having. A lot of students are going to be discouraged from coming to Texas and specifically this university.”
A lot of students are going to be discouraged from coming to Texas and specifically this university.
— Jesus Carillo, political science junior and international student
Abbott’s motivations for the freeze are claimed visa abuse and prioritizing Texan workers. In addition to the freeze on H-1B visas, Abbott has ordered state agencies such as universities to provide reports of all H-1B visa petitions filed in 2025 and proof that such agencies made an effort to employ Texans before H-1B visa recipients.
“From what I’ve read and from my experience working in an immigration law internship, I believe this freeze is going to impede research and medical staff,” Carillo said. “A lot of times with H-1B visa workers, they may be paid a high wage but a lower wage than someone from Texas so it would impede those people from coming who are researching and advancing science.”
This freeze comes after increased efforts from the national government to restrict immigration through travel bans, and increased immigration and customs enforcement activity throughout the U.S.
“The freeze, the current presidency and everything going on in the United States might push me out of the United States whether I want to or not, but it does dissuade me from Texas seeing how an international student might be last in line out of a group of [job] applicants,” Carillo said.
The freeze, the current presidency and everything going on in the United States might push me out of the United States whether I want to or not.
— Jesus Carillo, political science junior and international student
The Retrograde reached out to multiple other international students, who declined interviews out of fear that speaking about the immigration process could impact their own status. The Retrograde reached out to the UTD International Education Center, International Students and Scholar Office and Office of Communications regarding the H-1B freeze. As of publication, none of these offices provided comment.
“I’ve been in Texas for around eight years. I came here when I was 12 and I’m now 20,” Carillo said. “My family is here, a lot of my friends are here, but Texas being the red state that it is, I may be forced to live somewhere more progressive so I can have more opportunity.”