Abbott Moves to Purge H-1B Workers, Foreign Influence From Texas Schools

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has spent much of 2026 making one thing clear: Texas institutions answer to Texans first.

He has spent a lot of time recently drawing lines in the sand over who gets access to taxpayer-supported institutions, as well as who gets to be hired by them, who gets to fund them, and just how far those institutions can go to accommodate the cultural and religious demands of foreign cultures

Just last week, he put the kibosh on plans to install Muslim foot washing (aka, ablution) stations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. “These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” Abbott said. “Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others.”

He's now moved on to a new target: H-1B visa holders and the influence those foreign workers are having on Texas public schools. Abbott announced this week that he intends to push legislation that will bar public schools from employing workers through the federal H-1B visa program.

How many H-1B workers does the governor think should be employed in Texas public schools? "Exactly zero."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday said he plans to call for a ban on school districts employing anyone with an H-1B visa.
Exactly zero Texas public school employees should be here on H-1b visas," Abbott said.
The call comes after Abbott ordered a freeze on new H-1B petitions by state agencies and public colleges and universities, citing concerns about abuse of the federal program and needing to prioritize jobs for Texas workers.
"Bottom line is this foreign influence of any kind has no place in our classrooms," Abbott said.

Texas public schools couldn’t sponsor H-1B visas to hire foreign workers under a ban Gov. Greg Abbott proposed Tuesday. https://t.co/87a7gJg00K pic.twitter.com/wEJgQmwrwE
— KXAN News (@KXAN_News) August 19, 2026

And Abbott isn't speaking in hypothetical terms when he talks about foreign influence making its way into Texas classrooms.

This is where Qatar enters the chat.

Qatar Foundation International has poured more than $1.5 million into public schools in Austin and Houston over the last decade, and that money goes toward, among other things, funding Arabic-language programs, teacher salaries, curriculum materials, and other classroom expenses. A May investigation also raised concerns that this influence has led to antisemitism being taught in those classrooms.

So, when Abbott says "foreign influence of any kind has no place in our classrooms," he's talking about something already taking place in some Texas schools.

When you take his broadside on H-2B visas together with his nuking of the airport ablution stations, the message being sent by the governor is crystal clear: Texans come first.

One last note: if this is happening in Texas, can you imagine the foreign influence in blue state public schools?

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