Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating nearly 30 North Texas businesses he accused of H-1B visa fraud, widening a probe first begun in January, his office said in a press release Thursday.
H-1B visas allow highly skilled foreign workers the ability to work for employers who can’t get the skills and abilities they need from the U.S. workforce. Paxton accused the companies of operating “ghost offices” to falsely represent active operations so they can sponsor foreign workers.
As part of the investigation, Paxton issued civil investigative demands — or CIDs — asking the companies to hand over documents identifying all employees, records detailing the specific products or services they provide, financial statements and communications related to company operations.
“I will not allow the H-1B program to be abused by bad actors seeking to use it as a loophole for allowing foreign nationals to invade Texas,” Paxton said. “My office will continue working to uncover and put an end to fraud within the H-1B program.”
The businesses include Tekpro IT LLC, Fame PBX LLC, 1st Ranking Technologies LLC, Qubitz Tech Systems LLC, Blooming Clouds LLC, Virat Solutions Inc., Oak Technologies Inc., Techpath Inc., and Techquency LLC.
It comes three months after Paxton first announced his office was investigating alleged abuse of the H-1B visa program by Texas businesses. The statewide probe began with the attorney general's office issuing CIDs to three North Texas companies in January.
Paxton accused the businesses of advertising nonexistent products or services to sponsor H-1B visas. The investigation was prompted by conservative commentator Sara Gonzales accusing multiple IT consulting and software development contracting companies in North Texas of fraud.
Also in January, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agencies and universities to freeze all H-1B visa petitions, claiming the visa program is taking jobs from Texans.
And last year, the Department of Labor began launching new H-1B visa investigations into employers. That came as the Trump administration announced it would require new H-1B petitioners to pay a $100,000 fee.
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