(TEXAS, UNITED STATES) — The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has increasingly relied on immigrant employees with valid work authorization to staff its prisons as a long-running staffing crisis persists. That practice is now under heightened scrutiny after federal policy shifts under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) and tougher vetting by USCIS.
Federal posture and agency statements
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow outlined the agency’s posture in a December 22, 2025 end-of-year review, saying:
“USCIS has taken an ‘America First’ approach, restoring order, security, integrity, and accountability to America’s immigration system. Protecting Americans is at the center of everything we do. We are committed to safeguarding public safety and national security by making sure every alien undergoes the most rigorous vetting and screening processes possible.”
A January 2, 2026 DHS memo reinforced the tougher enforcement approach after the expansion of travel restrictions to 39 countries, including Nigeria. The memo quoted a USCIS memorandum:
“USCIS remains dedicated to ensuring aliens from high-risk countries of concern who have entered the United States do not pose risks to national security or public safety. To faithfully uphold United States immigration law, the flow of aliens from countries with high overstay rates, significant fraud, or both must stop.”
Workforce makeup at TDCJ
As of June 2025, TDCJ employed about 36,000 people, of whom roughly 1,600 were foreign nationals. The largest national-origin groups among those foreign-national employees were:
| Country | Number of employees | Share of foreign-national employees |
|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | 1,120 | ~70% |
| Cameroon | 204 | — |
| Mexico | 93 | — |
| Kenya | 20 | — |
The heavy concentration of workers from Nigeria has made the new federal scrutiny particularly consequential for the agency’s staffing stability.
Staffing shortfalls and pay changes
Staffing shortfalls have persisted even after a 10–15% pay increase that took effect on September 1, 2025. Some units reported up to 70% of guard positions remaining unfilled.
For nearly two decades, TDCJ has recruited from abroad to fill vacancies in rural areas where local labor pools were thinned by the energy boom. That long-standing practice is colliding with a shifting federal immigration posture that adds uncertainty to a workforce the prison system still struggles to recruit and retain.
Key federal changes under H.R. 1 and USCIS policy
Major federal changes that affect TDCJ’s immigrant workforce include:
- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), signed into law on July 4, 2025, which:
- Mandates a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination” of Green Card holders from “countries of concern”, including Nigeria.
- Tightens rules around Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) by ending automatic extensions of work permits while renewals are pending.
- Creates new or significantly higher fees for work permits and humanitarian parole.
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USCIS’s December 4, 2025 Policy Manual update, which reduced the maximum validity period for EADs from five years to 18 months. Edlow said the change was needed to prevent those seeking to work in the U.S. from threatening public safety or promoting harmful ideologies.
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DHS memos implementing a sharper enforcement approach tied to country-specific pauses after travel restrictions expanded to 39 countries. A pause on applications from some countries, including Nigeria, was announced January 1, 2026.
Operational impacts on TDCJ and its employees
The federal changes create several operational frictions for workers and TDCJ:
- The end of automatic EAD extensions means delays or interruptions can carry immediate workplace consequences, especially for employees in security-sensitive roles.
- The shorter EAD validity period (18 months) requires more frequent renewals, increasing the number of times workers must pass through vetting and screening.
- Country-specific pauses and reexaminations threaten the legal status of hundreds of current guards if renewals are frozen or cases are reopened.
- Higher fees and more frequent renewals raise the financial and administrative burdens on immigrant employees.
Human consequences and enforcement examples
The new scrutiny has already affected individuals in TDCJ’s workforce, including long-serving staff.
- In late 2025, Rev. James Eliud Ngahu Mwangi, a Kenyan native and vetted Texas prison guard, was placed in deportation proceedings after being declared a “deportable alien” due to a visa overstay. He chose to self-deport in December 2025 rather than remain in detention.
These cases illustrate how changes to immigration adjudications can reach beyond employment to affect workers’ families and personal stability.
State political context
TDCJ’s dependence on immigrant guards has drawn attention amid Texas’s broader political and enforcement posture on immigration:
- Governor Greg Abbott has signed laws requiring jails to cooperate more closely with ICE.
- In February 2025, the state offered 4,000 state prison cells to the federal government for immigration detention.
Those moves have coincided with TDCJ’s internal staffing challenges, creating tension between state-level enforcement priorities and the agency’s operational need to maintain sufficient staffing for public safety.
Expert perspective
Michele Deitch, a criminal justice expert at UT Austin, said on January 3, 2026 that TDCJ’s hiring of foreign workers appears:
“at odds with Republican messaging,” but is a necessity because “these are jobs that the agency has trouble filling for all sorts of reasons.”
She and other experts point to multiple drivers behind the staffing problem, including rural labor shortages, the energy boom’s pull on local workers, and the difficulty of recruiting for certain posts.
Summary of operational risks
- Concentrated reliance on foreign-national staff in specific units can cause outsized staffing disruptions if many workers lose authorization at once.
- Procedural changes (shorter EADs, end of automatic extensions, higher fees, country reexaminations) increase uncertainty for employees and the agency.
- Political and regulatory shifts mean that staff who were previously hired and vetted may face renewed scrutiny or interrupted employment.
“Protecting Americans is at the center of everything we do,” Edlow said, framing the federal shift as a public safety mission. The government’s rationale in the DHS memo similarly emphasized stopping flows from countries with high overstay rates or significant fraud.
For TDCJ, the issue remains as much operational as it is political: after pay increases and long-term recruitment efforts, the agency continues to confront vacancies—sometimes up to 70% in particular units—while federal immigration rules and procedures that govern workers’ legal status and work permits are changing around them.
The Texas prison system’s reliance on immigrant labor is being tested by new federal immigration restrictions. Despite a 10-15% pay raise, staffing vacancies remain as high as 70% in some units. Federal changes, including the H.R. 1 Act and shortened work permit durations, have placed the agency’s 1,600 foreign-national employees under intense scrutiny, complicating recruitment and retention in a sector already struggling to maintain basic operational safety.
