Senior investigative reporter for The Dallas Express, Kellen McGovern Jones, is scheduled to speak Thursday evening in Lewisville about federal visa policy and its impact on Texas communities.
Jones will address members and guests of the Coppell Republican Women on Thursday, March 5, during the group’s regularly scheduled evening program.
The event is set to run from 6:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. at a meeting venue located at 571 E. Round Grove Road (Spring Creek BBQ) in Lewisville.
The appearance is part of his ongoing series of public presentations examining the federal H-1B visa program and its effects on local labor markets, universities, and public policy debates in Texas.
“When people hear ‘H-1B,’ they tend to think it’s a distant Washington issue,” Jones said ahead of earlier appearances on the tour. “In reality, it affects who gets hired, who gets laid off, what wages look like, and how local tax dollars are spent in places like Coppell.”
His remarks typically explore how companies and academic institutions use the visa program, as well as policy reforms proposed by lawmakers in Congress and by the Donald Trump administration.
Recent reporting by Jones in The Dallas Express has examined new federal data on the companies receiving the most H-1B approvals in Texas.
Cognizant Technology Solutions led the state with more than 50,000 approvals, followed by Infosys Limited with more than 45,000 approvals, while companies including Oracle America, Tesla, and KPMG also ranked among the top recipients between 2020 and 2025.
Other investigations by Jones have explored how federal housing programs intersect with immigration status.
A Freedom of Information Act request response obtained by The Dallas Express found the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development does not track the citizenship status of recipients of certain Federal Housing Administration–insured loans, despite agency guidance stating that H-1B visa holders are not eligible for those loans.
Jones has also reported on historical uses of the H-1B program, including claims that financier Jeffrey Epstein sponsored visas for individuals connected to his operations in the 1990s.
Ghislaine Maxwell first obtained long-term U.S. status through an H-1B sponsorship tied to Epstein during that period.
Additional coverage by Jones examined visa filings by Texas universities.
Records cited in The Dallas Express indicated that Texas A&M University spent more than $3.25 million sponsoring H-1B workers, with most filings in 2025 tied to lower-level instructional positions.
Jones said his presentations are designed to help audiences better understand how federal policy decisions translate into local economic outcomes.
“This isn’t just about immigration policy in the abstract,” he said during earlier stops on the tour. “It’s about whether communities are subsidizing labor decisions that displace local workers or suppress wages, and whether taxpayers are getting an honest accounting of where their money is going. The program has legitimate tradeoffs, and we should be truthful about what those are.”
The Lewisville event is expected to include a question-and-answer session following the presentation.
