Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: GOV. Ron DeSantis directed Florida education officials to “pull the plug” on the use of H-1B visas for foreign workers at the state’s universities, arguing that such jobs should go to Americans.
At a news conference at the University of South Florida in Tampa on October 29, DeSantis rattled off a list of jobs at the state’s colleges that he said should be filled by Americans, New York Times reported.
The details of the plan were not immediately clear, including whether it would apply to current visa holders, or for future applications. H-1B visas are provided to educated foreign citizens applying to work in specialty occupations.
The Governor’s comments are in line with the agenda of the Trump administration, which last month enacted a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas. If Florida’s university system embraces DeSantis’s proposal, it will be at odds with many higher education leaders, who have spent recent weeks publicly and privately lobbying the White House and Congress against Trump’s proclamation. They have argued that H-1B visa holders fill critical teaching and research roles. DeSantis is a vocal critic of H-1B which he called indentured servitude and cheap labor.
The Governor came all prepared with the data of how many H-1B visa holders are working in Florida colleges and universities. He put out the list of assistant professors, coaches, data analysts, coordinators, marketers, and more university workers on H1-B visas from areas like the United Kingdom, China, Spain, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Russia, Poland, Albania, Argentina, and the West Bank.
