Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is sharpening his stance on legal immigration, taking aim at the H-1B visa program in what some observers see as early positioning for a second presidential bid in 2028.

At a July 28 event in Panama City Beach, DeSantis lashed out at the tech industry’s use of foreign labor, comparing the H-1B program to “indentured servitude” and suggesting it displaces American workers.

“They’re laying off all these American workers and then they’re importing H-1B visa people to work for cheaper. I think that’s a total scam,” he said. “Is that good policy for us as a country to have Americans put out of work and then to bring in H-1B (visas)?”

DeSantis, who cannot seek reelection and will leave office after Florida’s 2026 gubernatorial election, has increasingly leaned into national culture war and economic themes. On Monday, he warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence, criticized Big Tech, and questioned the long-term value of AI-driven economic growth.

“I don’t want our experience, our ability to live and pursue happiness… to be subordinated to the whims of these big tech guys,” DeSantis said, warning against “major, major upheavals in jobs and in businesses” caused by automation and AI.

While H-1B visas are legal and often used by companies to fill specialized roles, critics have long argued that the program is exploited to suppress wages and circumvent American labor.

According to a 2025 fact sheet from the Department for Professional Employees (DPE), which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, “Employers can and do underpay H-1B workers,” with 60% of these roles paid at the lowest two federally permissible wage levels. The group also flagged concerns over coercive dynamics, noting that visa holders who lose their jobs risk deportation.

DeSantis echoed those concerns, alleging that visa recipients often remain tied to their sponsoring companies under threat of losing their legal status. “They’re using something that’s on the books. I acknowledge that,” he said. “But… they do chain migration from the H-1B. So the H-1B is bringing in other folks.”

Some economists and libertarian-leaning think tanks have defended the visa program. A 2021 blog post by the CATO Institute stated that “H‑1B workers are highly paid: their wages are in the 90th percentile of all wages in the United States.” However, critics point out that this comparison may be skewed by the high levels of education many H-1B workers possess and are therefore not comparable to all wages earned by all workers.

The program has drawn renewed scrutiny after reports that companies, including Microsoft, laid off thousands of American workers while continuing to apply for thousands of H-1B visas. Microsoft cut about 16,000 jobs in 2025 while applying for 9,491 H-1B visas in the previous fiscal year—all of which were approved, per Newsweek. A Microsoft spokesperson denied that the layoffs and visa applications were connected, stating that 78% of the applications were extensions for existing employees.

Still, Vice President JD Vance—another potential 2028 contender—has criticized companies like Microsoft, saying, “That displacement and that math worries me a bit… I don’t want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then say, ‘We can’t find workers here in America.’ That’s a story that doesn’t make sense.”

DeSantis’s rhetoric places him to the right of President Donald Trump on the issue. While Trump has long criticized the misuse of legal immigration channels, his administration has continued to issue H-1B visas to firms operating in the U.S. at levels comparable to previous administrations.

Trump’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) selected 120,141 H-1B visa applications for the fiscal year 2026, according to a Newsweek report. Moreover, a USCIS press release indicated that the federal government was also approving a “temporary” increase in H-2B nonimmigrant visas for fiscal year 2025.

Trump ally Roger Stone recently posted on X that “Trump loyalists… will never forget the treachery of Ron DeSantis,” offering a lingering sign of tension following DeSantis’s failed 2024 presidential primary run.

 

As DeSantis prepares to exit the governor’s mansion in 2026, his increasingly national rhetoric has fueled speculation about his future ambitions. He is widely expected to be among the leading figures vying for the Republican nomination in 2028, alongside Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We had the big tech run-up in dot com too at the end of the 1990s,” DeSantis said, casting doubt on the sustainability of AI. “I don’t know whether it’s a bubble… If I knew that, I’d probably find another line of work.”