Policy moves at state and federal levels are pressuring universities’ ability to hire foreign talent. Florida’s Board of Governors is considering a policy that would pause use of H‑1B hires at public universities through Jan. 5, 2027—fulfilling Gov. Ron DeSantis’s directive to end what he described as H‑1B “abuse.” The proposal would require boards to refrain from hiring via H‑1B and could force institutions to overhaul faculty recruitment and research staffing plans. At the federal level, a $100,000 fee on new H‑1B petitions implemented under the administration threatens to make university hiring prohibitively expensive, particularly for public K–12 districts and smaller colleges. Education-sector leaders warn the fee will tilt recruitment away from international faculty and clinicians and drive greater reliance on short-term visa categories ill-suited to sustained academic appointments. Colleges reliant on global talent—engineering, health sciences, computer science—face immediate operational risk: slowed research programs, clinical staffing shortages, and potential transfer of grant-driven projects. Trustees and provosts should assess contingency hiring pipelines, document critical roles dependent on H‑1B hiring, and consider unified advocacy to seek sector exemptions.