Since his first term, President Donald Trump has mused about overhauling the U.S. immigration system to make it more merit-based.
That fig leaf over what has been an indiscriminate crackdown on all immigration, including the legal kind, blows away with the latest overhaul of the student visa program.
Foreign scholars educated in prestigious American universities? Trump doesn’t want them either.
Yes, students abroad can still get a visa to study here. But with every tightening of the rules for seemingly no reason, they are getting the message that they are not wanted.
This isn’t just their problem. Foreign students aren’t eligible for federal financial aid. Many of them pay full tuition or close to it, providing a reliable source of revenue for colleges.
That’s to say nothing of their contributions to the American economy. People on student visas have never been guaranteed a job in the U.S. after they graduate. But many of those graduates go on to apply for H-1B or work visas, capped at 85,000 annually. Usually there are far more applicants than there are visas. The graduate has to get a job in the field he or she majored in.
Those students and graduates who stay strengthen talent pipelines for STEM careers and other fields, and some go on to become entrepreneurs behind household names. The Chobani yogurts in your shopping cart, for instance, were made possible by a Turkish immigrant who came to the U.S. on a student visa and later founded the yogurt company. Instagram was co-founded by a Brazilian who arrived at Stanford University on a student visa. Other former student visa holders contribute to our society in important but anonymous ways.
Under the Trump administration’s new rules, a foreign student’s F-1 visa will last four years or until the end date of their academic program, whichever is shorter. Previously, students’ visas lasted for the “duration of status,” which allowed them to take an extra semester or to go on to graduate studies. Now they’ll have to apply for an exemption.
A temporary employment authorization that students receive for job training at the end of their studies is also under review.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the changes were to curtail “abuse” by thousands he said have perpetually enrolled in courses to avoid leaving the country. Student visa holders already face restrictions about where and when they can work, and studying indefinitely is expensive. If such abuse is truly happening, the administration could have taken a scalpel to the issue instead of pounding the entire program with a hammer.
As our newsroom colleague Kathy Wang reported, international student enrollment at the University of Texas at Dallas and UT Arlington has dropped precipitously in the past two years. International students told Wang that they feel increasingly unwelcome and alienated.
That’s a shame. This country once took pride in attracting top talent and nourishing it, no matter where it came from.
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