Texas H-1B Visa Restrictions Threaten Cancer Research Momentum at MD Anderson
Key Insights
Gov. Greg Abbott's January 2026 directive restricting H-1B visa use at public institutions has raised alarms among cancer (search) research advocates who warn it could stall Texas's multibillion-dollar cancer-fighting strategy.
MD Anderson Cancer Center sponsors 277 H-1B workers and filed 853 petitions from 2020 to 2025, yet as of July 17 no public institution had sought required state permission for new hires.
Foreign-born researchers comprise over 40% of biomedical graduate students and at least half of postdoctoral trainees, making visa restrictions a direct threat to the research talent pipeline.
Texas's decades-long, multibillion-dollar investment to become a national cancer (search)-research leader faces an uncertain future as Gov. Greg Abbott's restrictions on the H-1B visa program approach the six-month mark, with cancer advocates and immigration attorneys warning the policy could undermine the state's scientific workforce strategy.
At MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, 277 researchers and physician-scientists hold H-1B work visas, according to records obtained by The Texas Tribune. These scientists explore mechanisms of treatment resistance, test experimental drugs, and deploy artificial intelligence to analyze tissue at single-cell resolution. Across Texas, 44 public universities, health centers, and system offices reported sponsoring 3,332 H-1B workers to the Texas Workforce Commission (search) as part of Abbott's reporting mandate.
The governor issued his directive on January 27, barring public colleges, universities, and state agencies led by gubernatorial appointees from filing new H-1B petitions without TWC approval through May 31, 2027. Institutions seeking permission must demonstrate why a position is essential, why existing employees or Texas vendors cannot fill it, what uniquely qualifies the proposed foreign worker, and how they attempted to recruit Texans or other authorized workers.
As of July 17, no public university or state agency had sought such permission, according to TWC press officer Sara Fischer. MD Anderson officials stated the center is complying with the directive and "will await further guidance on how future hires may work," but declined to answer repeated questions about whether the policy has affected hiring, research, clinical trials, or patient care.
A Research Enterprise Built on Global Talent
Texas voters approved the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (search) in 2007, initially committing $3 billion to position the state as a national leader in cancer (search) research. MD Anderson researchers have since received more than $745 million from CPRIT, representing approximately 18% of all state program awards. From 2020 through 2025, the institution also led all U.S.-based higher education institutions in National Cancer Institute funding every year, receiving nearly $847 million in total.
The H-1B program has become integral to sustaining this enterprise. MD Anderson filed 853 H-1B petitions between 2020 and 2025, with annual filings rising from 91 in 2020 to more than 160 in each of the last three years. The center spent approximately $2.78 million on these filings, including 564 new petitions and 289 renewals.
Lore Gruenbaum, chief scientific officer and senior vice president of research at Blood Cancer United (search), estimated that foreign-born students make up more than 40% of the graduate-student pool in biomedical research and at least half of postdoctoral trainees. "If we don't have that talent pool available, the quality and the scope and the impact of the research that can be done will very likely decrease," Gruenbaum said.
She characterized the restrictions as sending "a chilling message that foreign-born researchers are less welcome" at a time when institutions already face difficulty recruiting and retaining young scientists.
Shifting Guidance and Political Uncertainty
The TWC issued guidance in March that interpreted the approval requirement more narrowly than Abbott's directive initially suggested. Jerry White, TWC's director of human resources, informed institutions that approval was required only for prospective workers living outside the United States whose petitions would be subject to a $100,000 federal fee. Renewals and certain status changes for students and recent graduates already in the country were exempted.
However, the commission's guidance also stated that permission "will not be granted" for workers from countries on a prohibited list — a list that includes China, one of the most common countries of origin among MD Anderson's H-1B workers.
Kathleen Campbell Walker, an El Paso immigration attorney with Dickinson Wright PLLC and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, questioned the legal basis for this restriction after a federal court vacated a separate policy pausing immigration applications from people in 39 countries. The federal government appealed, but its request to pause the ruling was denied on July 15.
"The shifting guidance and remaining uncertainty about the prohibited-country restriction underscore her view that the directive is more political than practical," Campbell Walker said. "And it's a political statement, to me, that does not put Texas first."
She added that the absence of permission requests does not indicate universities no longer need H-1B workers. Rather, institutions may be relying on foreign talent who do not require state approval or are avoiding new petitions that could draw scrutiny. "I think that the universities are very worried about being targeted for potential retribution if they file H-1B petitions right now subject to the governor's directive," Campbell Walker said.
Broader Implications for Drug Development
The impact of hiring delays extends beyond academic laboratories. Gruenbaum noted that stalled recruitment can prevent laboratories from adopting specialized technology, slow grant-funded work, and delay research into rare cancers. Because some blood cancers affect relatively few patients, a small number of research groups may be responsible for advancing a promising treatment for an entire disease.
"Biomedical science is a team sport," Gruenbaum said, emphasizing that MD Anderson's influence reaches into the pharmaceutical industry itself. The institution trains researchers, physicians, and physician-scientists who later help develop drugs at biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. "This is the training ground. Nobody can advance without going through this training ground."
State Rep. Ann Johnson, a Houston Democrat whose district includes part of the Texas Medical Center and who was treated for thyroid cancer (search) at MD Anderson, offered a blunt assessment: "You're not stopping fraud. You're stopping a patient from getting the finest care from the finest doctor in the world because they're no longer welcome in Texas."
The state-level restrictions come as the Trump administration separately finalized a rule limiting international students' authorized stay to four years unless they receive an extension — a change that could particularly affect doctoral students whose programs often require longer timelines. Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, called the rule detrimental "not just bad for higher education. It is bad for American innovation, economic growth, workforce development, and global leadership."
Samantha Wolfe, a Colorado-based immigration attorney who advises universities and employers, noted that the additional state review layer could put Texas institutions at a competitive disadvantage when recruiting specialized researchers and physicians against universities and hospitals in other states.