The Dallas-Fort Worth region creates so many new jobs, averaging over 100,000 annually over the last five years, that it has to rely on outsiders to fill 'em.

California, New York and Illinois have provided a steady stream of newcomers for decades. Mexico, India and China are major contributors, too. Together, domestic and international migrants account for nearly half of the Texas workforce.

Another piece of the puzzle is the H-1B visa program, the nation's largest temporary employment plan — and another source of strength for D-FW.

The program allows companies to hire foreign-born workers with specialized skills and high levels of education. H-1B visas are for three years and can be extended for another three-year term, and they can be a path to permanent residency.

They’re used primarily for technology workers, but universities, engineering firms and public schools depend on them, too. Dallas ISD has over 250 bilingual teachers on H-1Bs, and officials are going to Mexico next week to recruit more.

Employers in Dallas-Fort Worth were awarded 74,000 H-1B visas from 2010 to 2016, the second-most in the nation, according to the Pew Research Center. The largest metro, which includes New York, Newark and Jersey City, had over three times more H-1Bs.

But Dallas had more of the visas than Washington, Boston and San Jose, which are often hailed as tech talent centers.

The ranking reflects our booming labor market and diversified economy. But the H-1B pipeline is under pressure because the Trump administration has proposed several changes as part of the president’s “Buy American and Hire American” agenda.

Startup visas, spouses

This month, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it wants to revise H-1B rules "to increase focus on obtaining the best and brightest foreign nationals" and "to better protect U.S. workers and wages," USCIS director Francis Cissna wrote in a letter to the Senate.

It's also working to end two Obama-era programs. One allows spouses of H-1B visa holders to be employed here and the other admits foreign entrepreneurs to start companies in the U.S. The so-called startup visa has attracted just 10 applicants, Bloomberg reported this week.

“The Trump administration is killing it with bureaucracy,” Bloomberg wrote.

The Trump administration has ramped up H-1B oversight, requiring renewals to be made in person and requesting additional proof that the workers are needed and being paid top-tier salaries, The Associated Press reported. An expert told the AP that the government scrutiny was unprecedented.

The government caps the total number of H-1Bs at 85,000 a year for private employers, and about 10 percent more are awarded to schools, nonprofits and research organizations that are exempted from the cap.

In early April, the government received over 190,000 applications for the visas. For the sixth consecutive year, it held a lottery to allocate the documents.

While opponents criticize the program for lowering wages and taking jobs from Americans, business leaders insist that it's needed. Eric Schmidt, former executive chairman of Google's parent company, said last year that the cap on H-1Bs was "the single stupidest policy in the entire American political system."

H-1B visa holders account for a relatively small share of the workforce — a few percentage points. But they bring specialized skills and help fill key gaps. They must have at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, and in Dallas, 43 percent have an advanced degree.

That's especially helpful because Texas is a laggard in education and must import top talent. Over three-quarters of immigrants from India have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 27 percent of the Texas population, according to a Dallas Fed report.

H-1Bs "represent a new influx of educated workers,” said Neil Ruiz, Pew’s associate director of global migration and demography.

Key tech skills

Just over half of the total visas awarded from 2001 to 2015 went to Indian nationals, Pew said, and they’re important contributors to Dallas' telecom and software companies.

“They’re part of our fabric, and we simply don’t have the numbers to fill those seats on our own,” said Matt Bomberger, managing director for Experis IT, a tech staffing company that often gets several hundred H-1B visas a year.

In D-FW, the unemployment rate is less than 2 percent for tech workers that Experis is seeking, he said. Nationwide, the jobless rate falls steadily for workers with college degrees and higher — and that’s a telling data point on the importance of the visas.

DISD's total of over 250 teachers working on H-1Bs puts it among the top Dallas employers for the category. Next week, district officials are going to Mexico City to interview 300 to 500 candidates, and those selected must eventually pass a series of state tests. The district aims to add at least 50 bilingual teachers for the 2019-20 school year.

“There’s such a shortage of teachers that we have to go abroad to find qualified people,” said Jordan Carlton, manager of talent acquisition at DISD. “It’s one of the only ways to avoid having an empty classroom.”

Visa holders and job candidates in Mexico are worried about Trump's talk on immigration and proposals for the H-1B, Carlton said. That's despite the fact the school district is exempt from the H-1B cap.

“They’re nervous about their livelihood, and they’re worried about their status,” Carlton said.

We should be nervous about recruiting enough talent, because it fuels our economy.