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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call for public universities to “pull the plug” on hiring H-1B visa holders has sparked alarm among faculty members, who say the directive targets workers who are legally authorized to be in the country and essential to the state’s education and innovation goals. 

During an Oct. 27 press conference focused on his “Reclaiming Higher Education” agenda, DeSantis framed international scholars as obstacles to hiring “our own people.” 

“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,” DeSantis said. “We will not tolerate H-1B abuse in Florida institutions. That’s why I have directed the Florida Board of Governors to end this practice.”

That message, faculty and labor leaders say, promotes xenophobia and ignores how academic hiring actually works. The Florida Board of Governors, a 17-member body that oversees the state university system, did not respond to Prism’s request for comment.

“My first reaction is not disbelief anymore, but it is concern and sadness,” said Tania Cepero López, an associate teaching professor at Florida International University (FIU) and president of the university’s United Faculty of Florida (UFF) chapter. “It makes no sense for us to have as a goal not to engage with the best of the best scholars, regardless of their country of origin.”

At FIU alone, at least 68 union-eligible faculty are currently on H-1B visas, she said, a number that doesn’t include international staff, researchers, or administrators in non-union roles.

“What is a logical explanation for this argument? I cannot come up with one,” Cepero López said. “In terms of our mission, in terms of what we want to do for our students, in terms of the kind of innovation that we want to push for, in terms of the kind of problem-solving that we want to teach our students, the only way that we can do that is to engage with our international colleagues.”

Statewide, UFF President Robert Cassanello called the governor’s claims “ignorant” and full of misrepresentation, noting that H-1B hires are often necessary because highly specialized roles don’t have qualified domestic candidates available. Cassanello said that the move was “remarkable,” coming from a governor who has said he is against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives because he believes meritocracy should decide who lands a position.

“All of a sudden, when it comes to immigration, H-1B visas, he wants quotas,” Cassanello said. “What happens if the international candidate is the best candidate in the position?”

Cassanello said universities already recruit globally to comply with accreditation standards, research demands, and competitive workforce preparation.

“[DeSantis] was making these broad generalizations and speculating about how searches work,” Cassanello said. “He’s ignorant of the system, and he’s just peddling a bunch of nativism and stereotypes onto what he thinks is happening at the universities.”

Interfering in the hiring process, Cassanello warned, would harm the very STEM fields lawmakers claim to champion.

“They’re telling us that they want the hard sciences and they want the engineering and they want all of these high-skilled, high-paying career programs to flower, yet these policies on H-1B visas are going to hurt those specific programs the most,” Cassanello said.

Faculty say DeSantis’ comments do not exist in a vacuum. Cepero López described them as part of a broader campaign over the past two years to restrict global engagement and consolidate political control over higher education. She cited campus police cooperation agreements with immigration authorities and the cancellation of visas for enrolled FIU students without clear follow-up. To her, the message is unmistakable.

“First they came after undocumented people,” Cepero Lopez said. “[Now] they’re coming after documented people who are the cream of the crop. Who are they coming after next, and why?” 

In that climate, faculty morale has suffered. Cepero López said that some colleagues are already positioning themselves to leave the state quietly, often without informing their peers until after they are gone. 

“We hear about people leaving once they have left,” Cepero López said. “So a lot of people are not even sharing those plans with anyone, for fear of retaliation.”

Cassanello confirmed that his office has heard from visa-holding faculty, and even those now on green cards, who are anxious about traveling or returning to the country if policies shift suddenly. The union has begun connecting members to legal resources while it monitors developments.

It remains unclear how much authority the governor has to intervene directly in federally granted visa programs, and Cassanello believes that any concrete policy would risk violating employment law, which prohibits discrimination based on national origin. Yet he worries formal policy may not be necessary to produce real-world effects.

“University presidents want to please the governor,” Cassanello said. “[The] Board of Governors may not have to do any policy if they just say this is our desire. I’m certain administrators at colleges and universities in Florida are going to bend to that whim, and they’re going to begin to have a quiet campaign to encourage searches far and wide, not to hire people on H-1B visas.”

Faculty say that silence from university leadership only accelerates fears around that dynamic. FIU administrators have not issued any public reassurance to international faculty since the governor’s remarks, according to Cepero López. She said even a symbolic statement of support would make a difference.

“I would be elated if I saw even a public statement from the [university] administration in support of our international faculty who are here legally, to use their language, who are here ‘documented,’ doing work that is valuable to the United States community,” Cepero López said.

The stakes, both Cepero López and Cassanello stressed, extend beyond faculty livelihoods. They affect the future of Florida’s students. For now, faculty say they will continue to teach, research, and mentor at the highest level they can, even as they brace for further political interference. 

“We’re still doing excellent work at FIU,” Cepero López said. “We’re still giving our best selves to the work that we do, to our students. We’re committed to preparing them for the workplace. We take pride in being a university that allows students to engage in upward mobility, and we’re going to continue to do that and use our expertise to make those choices, and we’re not going to self-censor.”

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor