Texas A&M University has spent over $3.25 million since 2020 sponsoring foreign workers through the H-1B visa program, according to records obtained by The Dallas Express. This raises concerns about whether the public university is prioritizing overseas labor over training and hiring Texans.
The newly released files, obtained after months of delays and a formal complaint to the Texas Attorney General that has not yet been resolved, show Texas A&M spent $3,252,339.17 on H-1B-related fees and processing costs between January 1, 2020, and late November 2025.
The expenditures cover every stage of the visa process, including sponsorship for permanent residency in the United States after visa expiration, according to the records.
The disclosures arrive amid a broader debate over how public universities’ reliance on foreign labor affects demographics and wages in Texas, particularly as many of the positions sought are not elite or rare roles.
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services H-1B Data Hub, 659 H-1B beneficiaries have been approved at Texas A&M since 2020 through September 30, 2025, the most recent period available. Across the entire Texas A&M System — which includes entities such as AgriLife Extension and Texas A&M University at Galveston — the number of approved H-1B workers exceeds 1,400, according to the data hub.
Nationally, the majority of those visas go to workers from India and China. Federal data show 72% of H-1B visas are awarded to workers from India and about 12% to workers from China, according to USCIS figures.
The privately operated H-1B Salary Database, which catalogs labor condition applications filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, one of the first steps in the H-1B process, shows that the overwhelming majority of Texas A&M’s filings in 2025 were for lower-level instructional roles.
Several applications were also submitted for non-instructional positions, such as Graphic Designer II and Communications Manager, according to the database. Other filings reviewed by The Dallas Express include applications for software application developers.
Archived job postings for those roles on LinkedIn show requirements of a bachelor’s degree in computer science and at least three years of experience. Those applications were submitted during a period when computer science graduates faced a 6.1% unemployment rate and 16.5% underemployment, according to a 2025 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Active job listings on ZipRecruiter show that the university pays several immigration specialists, with starting salaries ranging from $47,000 to $ 55,000, to administer its foreign labor hiring practices.
The files also do not show that the university has, thus far, paid the $100,000 fee imposed by the Trump Administration on most new H-1B visa applications starting in September, 2025, as previously reported on by The Dallas Express.
A handful of data points reference EB-2 or O-1 visas, although it is unclear why they were included in the nearly 3,200 records released by A&M.
The spending significantly outpaces that of other Texas institutions.
The University of Texas at Dallas, for example, spent $1,103,165 to hire approximately 300 H-1B workers between September 2020 and August 2025, based on records previously obtained by The Dallas Express.
Texas A&M’s spending during a comparable period was nearly three times higher, for only just over twice as many workers, records from both universities reveal.
The Dallas Express asked Texas A&M’s leadership why the university spends millions on foreign labor instead of directing those funds toward educating and training its own students to fill the same roles. The university’s president did not respond by publication time.
The expenditures also come as Texas A&M remains heavily reliant on foreign students for revenue.
Previous reporting by The Dallas Express found international students generated more than $106 million in tuition and fees in the 2024–2025 academic year, with adversarial or competitor powers such as India and China accounting for the largest share of foreign enrollment.
Elsewhere, some states are moving in the opposite direction.
In Florida, for example, the Board of Governors is considering a policy that would bar public universities from hiring new H-1B workers through January 5, 2027, following Gov. Ron DeSantis’s directive to prioritize citizens for university jobs, according to Inside Higher Ed.
In a recent press release defending the H-1B program, the American Association of University Professors wrote that the program is a “critical path for the United States to attract highly skilled professionals from around the world to fill urgent needs in the economy and public services to strengthen American innovation.”
Critics of the program see it as a way to hire cheaper foreign labor and drive down American wages.
“In fiscal year 2019, 60 percent of H-1B positions were paid at the lowest two levels, meaning they were paid below the median wage for the occupation and location,” the AFL-CIO’s 2025 H-1B fact sheet said.
For Texas A&M, the newly released records add detail to an ongoing dispute over transparency and priorities at one of the state’s flagship institutions, with further scrutiny likely as the attorney general reviews the pending complaint.