Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued an order on Tuesday May 27, 2025, temporarily halting foreign student and exchange visitor visas while the administration tries to figure out a system for examining applicant’s social media posts. Similarly, President Trump told Harvard University that it will no longer be allowed to enroll international students. At the moment, a federal judge has temporarily blocked this order, which Harvard claims would cause “immediate and irreparable injury” to the university. These actions beg the question: Why is the Trump administration doing this?
The State Department claims it needs more time to vet incoming students applying for visas to ensure that these applicants do not pose a threat to US safety. They claim that pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses are threatening the student body and destroying property even though no widespread evidence supports this argument. Some visas that were previously granted are now being revoked for minor things like traffic violations. One of the most concerning answers as to why some students are losing their visas is for no reason at all. They are being told via email that a criminal check has been performed and their status has been revoked despite them having no criminal convictions.
So what is at risk for the US when it loses these students? It is certainly arguable that this policy change will have a significant economic impact for the US. International students need to find a place to complete their studies, and the US offers the best options. When they come to the US, often as graduate students, they usually pay full tuition. In 2024, there were approximately 275,000 Chinese students in the US, the majority of whom were studying in STEM disciplines. By paying the full tuition, foreign students then allow universities to offer subsidies to US students who often attend with financial aid. In addition, once these international students graduate, they not only stay in the states to work but they also start and build companies that employ US citizens. Some of those companies include but are not limited to Google, Youtube, Ebay and Tesla. Research from 2023-2024 shows that foreign students contributed $44 billion to the US economy and created over 378,000 jobs, according to the NAFSA website (nafsa.org).
Halting or revoking student visas goes beyond economic consequences for our country. The Trump Administration is creating a brain drain. Our status as the world leader in innovation is at risk. According to a report from GlobalData, the US is now behind China in our running of drug clinical trials. This is in large part to the reduction in support of university biomedical research grants and funding to the NIH. This problem does not need to exist. The funding and support of foreign intellect coming to our top universities need not be halted. The costs of this self-inflicted dilemma far outweigh the benefits, if there are any at all.
