(July 19, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u2019s new rule limiting how long foreign students can stay on visas could make it more difficult for some anti-Israel activists to remain in the country indefinitely, experts told JNS.<\/p>\n
Markwayne Mullin, the U.S. homeland security secretary, stated on Thursday that the \u201cduration of status\u201d system, which has existed for almost 50 years, has \u201ccompromised national security and created an environment ripe for immigration fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForeign students have been admitted into the U.S. indefinitely, allowing thousands to abuse our immigration system by perpetually enrolling in courses to avoid having to leave the U.S.,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to the department, the rule limits foreign students and exchange visitors to four years in the country, after which they must apply for an extension. The rule also reduces the grace period for foreign students to leave the country, transfer schools or change their immigration status from 60 days to 30 days.<\/p>\n
Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JNS that under the \u201cduration of status\u201d system, \u201ca foreign student was vetted exactly once, and then never again, sometimes for a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have spent the last few years watching what unexamined, open-ended status can produce on a quad,\u201d he said. \u201cThis rule restores the unremarkable principle that a guest\u2019s visa gets reviewed by the government that issued it, on a schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overwhelming majority of international students are exactly what they say they are, and a student who comes here to study will graduate inside four years without ever noticing this rule exists,\u201d Goldfeder added. \u201cBut the perpetual activist on his seventh year of loosely defined coursework will notice it, and that is rather the point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rabbi Eric Fusfield, director of legislative affairs at B\u2019nai B\u2019rith International, told JNS that \u201cwe recognize the need for proper national security vetting and the monitoring of foreign nationals who support terrorist organizations and foment hatred on campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, we hope that the process of applying to immigration authorities for extensions will allow students who do not pose a security risk sufficient time to finish their study programs,\u201d Fusfield said.<\/p>\n
Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, told JNS that \u201cthere\u2019s some nexus between the real antisemitic Palestinian protesters and people who don\u2019t study.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt probably would help cut down on antisemitic protests on college campuses. I don\u2019t think that was the purpose behind it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a consular officer and you\u2019re interviewing someone for a student visa and you see that they basically haven\u2019t done any academic work and all they\u2019ve done is protested, then you might not be inclined to issue them a visa to go back because their primary purpose of going to the U.S. doesn\u2019t seem to be studying,\u201d Hankinson said.<\/p>\n
Jay Greene, a senior fellow at the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies who studies antisemitism in higher education, told JNS that the new rule is an \u201cimportant and necessary step.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Greene, the rule means that \u201cforeigners cannot extend their stay by delaying completion of their degrees or seeking more degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also discourages universities from using these foreign students as cheap workers to teach introductions classes and run research labs, which delays the time it takes to complete a degree,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cThe enforcement of the new rule is delayed until four years after it is published, allowing students and universities to adapt their plans to these reasonable limits.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes that the rule will help reduce how much \u201cforeign governments and non-governmental movements\u201d use student visas to \u201cplant agents and activists who remain indefinitely on college campuses to advance foreign political agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greene said there have been \u201chigh-profile cases\u201d like Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student facing deportation over his anti-Israel activism, \u201cwho use the cover of being perpetual students to promote anti-Israel and anti-American goals at American universities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(July 19, 2026 \/ JNS) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u2019s new rule limiting how long foreign students…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-548719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}