On an unseasonably sweltering Saturday in March, more than 100 people gathered outside the state Capitol in Des Moines. Standing on a pavilion at the base of the steps, community members held signs that read, “More than a visa,” “Strong universities, strong Iowa" and “Nationality is not a crime.”
Among the crowd that afternoon was Di Hu, who addressed the crowd from behind a podium.
“I'm a mother who calls Iowa home. I'm also a H-1B visa holder,” she said. “I have dedicated my career to Iowa's future. My work is not just a job. It is a critical mission for the health of our state.”
Hu is a medical assistant research scientist studying maternal hypertension at the University of Iowa. She came to the state almost five years ago as a postdoctoral researcher.
She was one in a slate of speakers ranging from agricultural researchers to designers who share one thing in common: an H-1B visa allowed them to get a job at an Iowa college. Together, they’re asking lawmakers to stop a bill they say threatens the same career path they took.
![Heidi Hu is a medical research assistant scientist at the University of Iowa and currently an H-1B visa holder. She first came to the state to work as a post "This bill will effectively force specialist scientists like me out of our lives, gutting Iowa's medical programs and aborting the federal grants and the clinical breakthroughs that Iowa's mother[s] and the children deserve.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c3f1773/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5878x3919+0+0/resize/840x560!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2Fc8%2F4ae9d3874603988591b21c2cb0fd%2Fheidihuspeaksatrally.JPG)
The proposal, House File 2513, would prevent the state’s three regents universities, community colleges and private institutions from hiring H-1B visa holders from countries designated as foreign adversaries or state sponsors of terrorism by the federal government.
This includes countries like China, Russia and Iran. It also includes Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and Syria.
House File 2513, would prevent the state’s three regents universities, community colleges and private institutions from hiring H-1B visa holders from countries designated as foreign adversaries or state sponsors of terrorism by the federal government.
Zhengyuan Zhu, one of the organizers of the rally, is part of the Chinese Faculty and Staff Association. It was one of four groups behind the event, along with the Chinese Association of Iowa, the Iowa City Area Chinese Association and Iowans for a Brighter Future. Zhu called the bill discriminatory.
“We shouldn't equate country — where you come from — with the person, right?” he said. “Every person are their [own] individuals. That's our American value. We shouldn't judge people by where they come from”
Zhu received an H-1B visa when he got his first job as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, before later switching to a more permanent status and coming to Iowa State University.
Now, Zhu is the director for the Center of Survey Statistics and Methodology at ISU which collects and compiles land data used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said the center mostly employs Iowans, but for some roles requiring doctorates, they’ve had to look internationally.
“It's clear that it's gonna restrict us — the higher education institutions, universities, private and public — from hiring the best talent to do the job,” Zhu said, adding that he speaks for himself and not his employer.
What is an H-1B visa?
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the H-1B program is intended to help employers find workers with skills that can’t be found in the U.S. workforce. Workers on H-1B visas must work in a specialty occupation requiring highly specialized knowledge and possess a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
Generally, the visa is approved for a three year term that can be extended to up to six years. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant, temporary work visa but it can also be a stepping stone to more permanent statuses. Federally, H-1B visas are capped at 85,000 per year, but H-1B visa petitions filed by institutions of higher education are exempt from this cap.
Iowa’s proposal to restrict schools from hiring some H-1B visa holders comes as the federal government moves to tighten regulations on the program and incentivize companies to hire more American workers.
In September, President Donald Trump released a proclamation requiring employers to pay a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions. The administration said it's aimed at curbing abuse of the program and prioritizing American workers.
Around the same time, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley reintroduced bipartisan legislation alongside Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, aimed at adding more oversight to the H-1B and L-1 visa programs and deterring exploitive practices by companies employing foreign workers.
What's in the Iowa bill?
The Iowa proposal passed the House in March by 68-27, largely along partly lines, and awaits approval in the Senate. It would prevent community colleges, private colleges and the state’s public universities from entering employment contracts with H-1B visa holders from the targeted countries starting July 1, 2026.
Lawmakers said it would apply to future contracts. It’s unclear whether it would also impact people renewing their contracts or visas.
State Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R- Hull, said the bill will protect sensitive research and guard against foreign influence.
“Do you really believe we should have members of the Chinese Communist Party teaching economics or political science or government in our regents universities?” said Wheeler, who managed the bill when it passed out of the House. “Do you really believe that we should have individuals from Russia or Iran influencing future voters in this country? I do not.”
Currently, Iowa’s public universities have 117 H-1B visa holders from the countries targeted in the bill, according to data from the Board of Regents. Of those visa holders, 104 are from China.
An earlier version of the bill only banned colleges from entering employment contracts with Chinese nationals with H-1B visas.
Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, proposed the bill. Collins said the bill was inspired by federal changes to the H-1B program and concerns from Iowans about espionage.
In 2016, Chinese businessman Mo Hailong pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Iowa for conspiring to steal trade secrets from DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto. Collins said Iowa universities have not informed him of any intellectual property theft on their campuses.
“We don't really want to roll the dice when it comes to that [espionage activities]. I think there's honestly a case we made to not even have the H-1B visa program,” Collins said. “Honestly, really, I would prefer that we'd be hiring Americans.”
Democrats call the bill discriminatory
House Democratic lawmakers say the H-1B program hasn't caused any issues for Iowa universities, and that the bill could make it harder for colleges to fill research and teaching positions.
Sen. Thomas Townsend, D-Dubuque, claimed the proposal could cause legal trouble for institutions.
“I just feel like it's a discriminative practice to not allow the universities to hire them and [I] feel like that’s going to open up the regents and other universities to possible lawsuits for discrimination and country of origin,” Townsend said in a Senate workforce committee meeting on March 11.
Across the country, other states have implemented restrictions on the H-1B program in higher education but without specific restrictions on designated countries.
Earlier this month, the board overseeing Florida's public universities approved a temporary freeze for hiring faculty on H-1B visas. In January, Texas stopped public universities and state agencies from filing new H-1B visa applications.
Potential economic effects of the bill
Peter Orazem, economics professor at ISU, said the state’s economy has underperformed the past 10 years, and a hiring ban could hamper innovation and research in areas that could improve Iowa’s economy, like agriculture.
Orazem said the ban could prevent colleges from bringing in the most competitive candidates for their departments, which could resonate with future students.
“It's not just that you're going to have potentially a lower quality faculty, but you're also going to have lower quality graduate student base," he said. “And those are the people who are doing the research on agronomy and animal science and all of the other areas where we're hoping to produce innovations that benefit the citizens of Iowa.”
Orazem said institutions in other states could reap the benefits of Iowa’s hiring restrictions.
“It's sort of hard to say what innovations wouldn't happen,” he said. “I think the innovations would happen. They just won't happen in Iowa, right?”
Zhu, the researcher from Ames, has lived in the state for almost 20 years and said he has personally experienced “Iowa nice” in his local community. He worries the proposal could make Iowa less welcoming.
“I can feel it — I've been to a few other places — I do feel that in the local community,” he said. “But this law is going to negate many of those efforts to make this a better place.”
Those who came over to the U.S. on H-1B visas and switched to more permanent statuses can continue working in the state, but for those hoping to follow a similar path, the way remains unclear for now.
