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Republican governor directs taxpayer-funded universities to ‘crack down’ on hiring foreign workers
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took action Wednesday to make the hiring of American workers a priority at the state’s higher education institutions.
“Florida is requiring institutions to put American graduates first and ensure taxpayer-funded schools serve the American workforce, not to be used to import cheap foreign labor,” the governor’s office stated in a fact sheet, published Wednesday.
DeSantis made the announcement during a visit to the University of South Florida. In a post Wednesday on X, he said he directed the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the 12 state universities, to “crack down” on the hiring of foreign workers with H-1B visas.
“Universities across the country are importing foreign workers on H-1B visas instead of hiring Americans who are qualified and available to do the job. We will not tolerate H-1B abuse in Florida institutions,” DeSantis wrote.
H-1B visas are given to non-immigrant foreign workers with skills in specialty fields, such as professors and researchers.
Currently, the number employed at public universities in Florida is just under 400, and more than 150 of them are at the University of Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reports based on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.
DeSantis said state universities should be looking instead to hire from among the “thousands of highly qualified” Florida residents who graduate annually with higher education degrees.
“If any universities are truly struggling to find U.S. citizens to fill their job openings, they ought to evaluate their academic programs to determine why they cannot produce graduates who can be hired for these positions,” he said.
The announcement quickly raised questions about the state’s authority in the matter and prompted criticism from a faculty union leader, the Orlando Sentinel reports:
Individual states do not have the authority to revoke visas, and it is illegal to fire employees on the basis of immigration status, according to the federal immigration agency. …
Robert Cassanello, the president of the United Faculty of Florida and a UCF history professor, criticized DeSantis for emphasizing merit-based hiring at universities but then not supporting the H-1B program.
Cassanello said it’s not that universities don’t want to hire American applicants for positions, but rather that many times there aren’t enough qualified applicants, especially for science and math positions. And many times, the best applicants come from other countries, he said.
“DeSantis is speaking out of both sides his mouth … He is actively trying to remove any and all autonomy of governing our public colleges and universities from the people who run them day to day,” he said.
Also in his announcement Wednesday, DeSantis said his administration cut “tens of millions of dollars in DEI-related projects” within the university system.
“Whether it’s DEI-inspired grants that privilege one race or gender over another, or HR departments that hire foreign H-1B workers when qualified Floridians are rejected, we will not tolerate discrimination against American citizens in our university system,” the governor wrote on X.
This fall, the Florida Board of Governors also is considering a measure to increase transparency by requiring universities to publicize class reading lists along with syllabi, The College Fix reported.
MORE: There are 20% fewer foreign college students in America this year: report
