Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller announced that his department will no longer award eligible grants to businesses that employ workers on H-1B visas, framing the move as a way to prioritize Texas workers and safeguard taxpayer dollars. The announcement, which Miller says applies to eligible grants administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture, does not touch federal grants or state-funded loan programs the agency runs, nor does it extend to programs operated by independent boards or entities that set their own eligibility criteria.
Commissioner's Announcement Meets Pushback
According to Click2Houston, Miller said the new eligibility requirements are intended to ensure the Texas economy benefits Texas workers and employers, and he is pushing beyond his own agency: he has urged Gov. Greg Abbott and other statewide elected officials to adopt similar safeguards across their agencies and grant programs. Miller also called for greater transparency about who receives state grants and for reviews of existing economic incentive programs, per the same report.
But not everyone agrees the policy Miller described matches what is actually written into the department's grant rules. A VisaVerge analysis of the AgPro grant materials found that the program requires all principal owners of an applicant business to be U.S. citizens or resident aliens — but concluded that requirement does not amount to a blanket ban on businesses simply because they employ H-1B workers. “They do not establish a separate, across-the-board bar on grant applicants because they employ workers with H-1B visas,” the analysis states. The Texas Department of Agriculture's own announcement, by contrast, describes the department as no longer awarding eligible grants to businesses that employ H-1B visa holders. The dossier does not resolve which description controls, and neither the precise legal authority behind the new policy nor its effective date has been made public.
What AgPro Actually Funds
AgPro is the state grant program at the center of the dispute, aimed at Texas agricultural producers who grow or raise raw commodities and want to launch or expand operations in the state. Awards under the competitive program are capped at $500,000, according to the VisaVerge review. The program already screens out several categories of applicants regardless of the H-1B question, including certain processors or manufacturers, general agricultural service providers, brokers, buyers and traders, universities, and food banks.
The timeline for AgPro awards has already slipped. The Texas Department of Agriculture had anticipated issuing award notifications in mid-July with projects starting August 1, but the agency and the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority received more applications than expected, pushing the schedule back. It remains unclear whether the new H-1B-related eligibility language applies to those pending applications or only to future grant cycles.
Part of a Broader State Pattern
The TDA announcement lands amid a wider state effort to limit H-1B hiring in government-linked roles. The Texas Workforce Commission says the state has been freezing new H-1B visa petitions across all state agencies to prioritize Texas workers. Separately, the Texas Tribune reports that Gov. Greg Abbott has prohibited public universities and state agencies from initiating new H-1B visa petitions without written permission from the Texas Workforce Commission, a restriction set to run through the end of the next legislative session on May 31, 2027.
The stakes for the broader workforce are notable even if H-1B employees represent a small slice of it. More than 40,000 people are authorized to work in Texas under H-1B visas, the Tribune reports, citing USCIS data, even though such employees make up a small share of the state's overall workforce and often fill specialized roles that are difficult to staff domestically. Nationally, the federal government can issue up to 65,000 H-1B visas annually, plus another 20,000 for workers holding at least a master's degree from a U.S. university, per the same report.
Open Questions Remain
Several basic details about the TDA policy have not been clarified. There is no confirmed list of exactly which department-administered grant programs fall under the new restriction, no explanation of how the agency will verify whether a business employs H-1B workers, and no word on enforcement if a violation is found. Comment from affected businesses, H-1B workers, immigration attorneys, or Abbott's office on the TDA-specific policy has not been made available.
