Trump Admin Has Revoked Over 6,000 Student Visas

Authored by Nancy Bareham via The College Fix,

More than 6,000 foreign students have lost their visa under the Trump administration, according to State Department data – and several commentators praised the federal government for pulling permission.

“The Trump Administration is protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,” the State Department said in response to an inquiry made by The College Fix about the revocations. 

The Heritage Foundation said student visas have benefits to the country but they can be abused.

“Student visas at best are a way to bring foreigners from many countries to learn from our best universities,” Hannah Fay, a communications fellow, told The Fix via email.

“We allow a few of the most talented to remain and work, but the majority go home to build their own countries,” 

“Despite the clear intent of the law that they be temporary, many students see a visa as the first step in what they believe is an entitlement to remain for life,” Fay said.

She said immigration enforcement is much better under Trump than Biden, saying the last president “was about open borders and mass migration, legal and illegal.”

“They wanted as many visas issued as possible and standards as low as legally permitted,” Fay said.

The State Department said there are several reasons visas can be revoked, including staying past the expiration date, criminal activity, and supporting terrorism.

The National Association of Scholars, a higher education reform group, said the administration is correct to weed out “terrorist sympathizers.”

“It would seem to me a good policy to review all existing student visas and revoke those belonging to known terrorist sympathizers,” Chance Layton, the director of communications for NAS, said via email. “Any arrest that occurs during anti-American agitation, protest, or subversive action is a reason to revoke a visa. Any act of espionage or technology transfer is a reason to revoke a student visa.”

He said long-term fixes are also in the works.

“It appears that, for the most part, the Trump administration will review these sorts of visas and will likely revoke many of them. Better yet, DHS is moving forward with formal rule-making, which will make it harder for a future administration to overturn these reforms,” Layton said.

The administration proposed capping student visa holders to a four-year stay in August. “Since 1978, foreign students (F visa holders) have been admitted into the U.S. for an unspecified period known as ‘duration of status,’” the Department of Homeland Security stated in a news release. “Unlike other visas issued, those with a ‘“’duration of status’”’ designation are allowed to remain in the U.S. for an indefinite amount of time without further screening and vetting.”

The Fix attempted to reach the Presidents Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration but it did not respond to several emails in the past month asking for comment on the revocation of visas.

While there have been 6,000 student visas revoked, hundreds of thousands of foreign students remain in the country. Groups such as NAFSA: Association of International Educators predict a 15 percent drop in foreign student enrollment this school year, although that would still mean around 1 million enrollees.

The Trump administration has also floated the idea of letting 600,000 Chinese students into the U.S. in the next two years, as previously reported by The Fix.

At the same time, it has attempted to deport foreign students who the administration alleges are sympathetic to Hamas.

In one high-profile case, an immigration judge recently ruled that former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil could be deported based on allegations he misled the United States about his internship with a United Nations agency.