Texas spent billions recruiting scientists from around the world to turn the state into a cancer-research powerhouse. Now, nearly six months after Gov. Greg Abbott restricted public institutions’ use of the H-1B visa program, cancer advocates and immigration attorneys warn the policy could undercut that strategy.
At MD Anderson Cancer Center, researchers holding H-1B work visas explore why tumors resist treatment, test new drugs and use artificial intelligence to analyze tissue cell by cell. Records obtained by The Texas Tribune show the Houston institution sponsors 277 workers through the program.
Across Texas, 44 public universities, health centers and system offices reported sponsoring 3,332 H-1B workers to the Texas Workforce Commission. The higher education institutions had to detail their use of such employees as part of Abbott’s directive.
The records do not establish whether Abbott’s policy has disrupted research, clinical trials or patient care. But Lore Gruenbaum, chief scientific officer and senior vice president of research at Blood Cancer United, said these types of restrictions send “a chilling message that foreign-born researchers are less welcome” at a time when institutions already face difficulty recruiting and retaining young scientists.
Gruenbaum estimated that foreign-born students make up more than 40% of the graduate-student pool in biomedical research and at least half of postdoctoral trainees.
“If we don’t have that talent pool available, the quality and the scope and the impact of the research that can be done will very likely decrease,” she said.
Alejandro Coronel, a press assistant in the governor’s office, did not answer the Tribune’s questions about the directive’s potential impact on cancer research.
Instead, Coronel pointed to Abbott’s Jan. 27 directive in which the governor said the restrictions are needed to protect Texas workers and prevent abuse of the federal program.
Abbott barred public colleges, universities and state agencies led by gubernatorial appointees from filing new H-1B petitions without TWC’s permission through May 31, 2027, the end of the next legislative session.
Institutions seeking approval must explain why the job is essential, why existing employees or a Texas vendor cannot do it, what uniquely qualifies the proposed worker and how they tried to recruit Texans or other authorized workers.
Abbott required public institutions to report their existing H-1B workers to TWC, including their jobs, countries of origin and visa expirations dates as well as the documented efforts to give qualified Texans a chance to apply for those positions.
As of July 17, no public university or state agency had sought permission, TWC press officer Sara Fischer said.
MD Anderson officials said the center is complying with Abbott’s directive and “will await further guidance on how future hires may work.” They did not answer repeated questions from The Tribune about whether the policy has affected hiring, research, clinical trials or patient care.
The center’s report to the state did not note whether qualified Texans applied for the jobs held by its H-1B workers. Officials told the TWC it was “not administratively feasible” to determine how each position was recruited because they do not collect applicants’ citizenship or immigration status, according to the documents reviewed.
MD Anderson reported a total of 278 workers on the first page of its report to TWC, but the accompanying spreadsheet listed 277. Most of those jobs are tied directly to cancer research and treatment.
From 2020 to 2025, MD Anderson filed 853 H-1B petitions. Annual filings rose from 91 in 2020 to more than 160 in each of the last three years, including both new petitions and renewals.
Recruiting the brightest
The visa program has become integral to the cancer-research enterprise Texas spent decades building.
In 2007, Texas voters approved the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, initially committing $3 billion to make the state a national leader in fighting cancer. Then-Gov. Rick Perry said the investment could “lure the brightest research minds from around the world.”
MD Anderson researchers have received more than $745 million from CPRIT, about 18% of all the state programs’ awards.
From 2020 through 2025, MD Anderson also led all U.S.-based higher education institutions in National Cancer Institute funding every year, receiving nearly $847 million in total.
Abbott issued his directive days after a conservative outlet scrutinized Texas A&M University spending more than $3.25 million on H-1B-related expenses over nearly five years.
MD Anderson spent about $2.78 million filing 853 H-1B petitions during that same timeframe, including 564 new petitions and 289 renewals.
The H-1B program was created to supplement the nation’s workforce, not replace it, Abbott wrote in his directive. “Bad actors” had failed to recruit qualified Americans and, in some cases, replaced them with lower-paid H-1B workers. Public institutions “must lead by example” and ensure taxpayer-funded jobs are “filled by Texans first,” he wrote.
State officials’ public focus on H-1B fraud in recent months has centered largely on private businesses, not public universities or public agencies.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has investigated dozens of private businesses and sued one company and its owner over an alleged scheme involving fake childcare businesses and fraudulent H-1B petitions.
Paxton’s office did not respond to questions from The Tribune about whether it has received any complaints about or launched any investigations into Texas public universities over their use of the visa program.
State Rep. Ann Johnson, a Houston Democrat whose district includes part of the Texas Medical Center and a former Harris County prosecutor, said she would support efforts to prosecute fraud but does not believe Abbott’s directive is really aimed at stopping it. Johnson was treated for thyroid cancer at MD Anderson.
“You’re not stopping fraud,” Johnson said. “You’re stopping a patient from getting the finest care from the finest doctor in the world because they’re no longer welcome in Texas.”
Layers of scrutiny
Universities’ ability to recruit foreign researchers depends partly on a pipeline that begins with international students, some of whom remain in the country after graduating from schools in the United States.
The Trump administration last week finalized a rule generally limiting international students’ authorized stay to four years unless they receive an extension. The change could particularly affect doctoral students, whose programs often take longer.
Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, said the rule would shift decisions about students’ academic futures to an already overburned immigration system.
“This is not just bad for higher education. It is bad for American innovation, economic growth, workforce development, and global leadership,” Aw said.
In Texas, immigration attorneys said many were relieved when the TWC issued guidance in March that interpreted public agencies’ approval requirement more narrowly than Abbott’s directive initially suggested.
Jerry White, TWC’s director of human resources, told institutions that approval was required for prospective workers living outside the United States whose petitions would have been subject to a $100,000 federal fee. Renewals and certain status changes from students and recent graduates already in the country did not require approval, he wrote in a March 13 email.
Kathleen Campbell Walker, an El Paso immigration attorney with Dickinson Wright PLLC and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, works with public universities.
In June, she questioned whether college officials would need the agency’s permission to hire an out-of-state graduate already in the United States on a student visa if they wanted to hire and sponsor that person through the H-1B status.
TWC’s initial guidance had specifically referred to students and recent graduates of a “Texas institution of higher education,” raising the possibility that approval may be needed to hire someone on a student or H-1B visa who trained at Harvard, Yale or another out-of-state state school. TWC officials later responded to Campbell Walker in writing that universities do not need its permission in such situations.
The commission’s March guidance noted that permission “will not be granted” for workers from countries on a prohibited list. That includes China, one of the most common countries of origin among MD Anderson’s H-1B workers.
Campbell Walker questions why Texas would consider a worker’s country of origin after a federal court vacated a separate policy pausing immigration applications filed by people from 39 countries. The federal government appealed, but its request to pause the ruling was denied on July 15, requiring immigration authorities to resume normal processing while the appeal proceeds.
Campbell Walker said the shifting guidance and remaining uncertainty about the prohibited-country restriction underscore her view that the directive is more political than practical.
“And it’s a political statement, to me, that does not put Texas first,” Campbell Walker said.
The absence of permission requests does not mean universities no longer need H-1B workers, Campbell Walker said. Institutions may be relying on foreign talent who do not require such approval or are avoiding new petitions that could draw scrutiny from state leaders, she said.
“I think that the universities are very worried about being targeted for potential retribution if they file H-1B petitions right now subject to the governor’s directive,” Campbell Walker said.
The state review adds another layer to an already extensive federal process.
TWC requires institutions to identify the position’s Labor Condition Application, confirm that the salary meets or exceeds the federal prevailing wage and document their recruitment efforts. That federal application requires wage and worksite information and is intended to prevent employers from underpaying H-1B workers.
Federal officials review whether the job requires specialized expertise, whether the worker is qualified and whether the employer and worksite are legitimate, said Samantha Wolfe, a Colorado-based immigration attorney who advises universities and employers.
TWC’s instructions list what institutions must submit but doesn’t explain how the agency weighs the information or decides whether to approve a request.
Wolfe said the additional state review could put Texas institutions at a disadvantage when they compete with universities and hospitals elsewhere for specialized researchers and physicians.
Hiring delays can prevent laboratories from adopting specialized technology, stall grant-funded work and slow research into rare cancers, Gruenbaum said. Because some blood cancers affect relatively few patients, a small number of research groups may be responsible for advancing a promising treatment for an entire disease.
“Biomedical science is a team sport,” she said.
Blood Cancer United funds research at MD Anderson and relies on its researchers and physician-scientists to review grant proposals, Gruenbaum said.
MD Anderson’s influence extends beyond its own laboratories. It trains researchers, physicians and physician-scientists who later help develop drugs at biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, Gruenbaum said.
“This is the training ground,” Gruenbaum said of MD Anderson. “Nobody can advance without going through this training ground.”
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
Disclosure: Open Campus, Kathleen Campbell Walker, MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas A&M University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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