Curtailing Foreign Student Visas: Cutting Off Your Nose To Spite Your Face
The Steady State | by Charles A. Ray
A Body Blow To Education, National Security and The Economy
The Trump Administration has created a hostile environment for foreign students wishing to study in the United States, from such measures as revoking visas, limiting the time a student can be in the United States, to the vetting of applicants’ social media posts. The administration’s crackdown on foreign students, in tandem with the plan for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, began within a few months of Trump’s inauguration. The student visa moves have also been linked to the president’s stated aim of eliminating antisemitism on American college campuses and limitations on student visa issuances to individuals associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or who are applying to study in certain fields.
These policies do not take into consideration that inviting students to study in the United States improves our well-being and, in fact, strengthens our national security.
The loss of foreign students harms the U.S. ability to build relationships with future leaders of other countries, which strengthens our long-term national security.
We lose out on expertise. When a Turkish student was unable to obtain a visa to study in the U.S., he went to China, where he helped Huawei dominate 5G technology, outpacing its competitors tenfold in terms of high-tech patents. The administration’s current actions have already affected student visa applications, causing some foreign students, especially Chinese students, to abandon plans to study at American universities.
International students and graduates have pioneered breakthroughs in nanotechnology, cancer treatment, and artificial intelligence (AI). The technology that enables Zoom and FaceTime, for example, was invented by an international student.
Research by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) has shown that international graduates have founded a quarter of the billion-dollar start-ups in the United States
Enrolling foreign undergraduate students has led to an increase in the number of STEM undergraduate degrees awarded to U.S. students.
Foreign students return to their home countries as business partners, entrepreneurs, and allies, strengthening economic and diplomatic ties that benefit the United States for generations.
Student exchange programs played a role in the erosion of the Soviet system, opening what had been a closed society. Russian students who studied in the U.S. were influenced to see the world with more open eyes, and were a major factor in undermining the authoritarian Soviet system, not through covert sabotage or military action, but through cultural understanding at the individual
Lasting Consequences For National–and Local–Economies
This government’s actions on student visas, as well as attacks on American universities, have sent shockwaves through the education system and left a cloud of uncertainty around the world.
Along with the emotional and educational toll on the student applicants, and the loss of cultural diversity to the American university communities, pushing foreign students away from the United States has a significant economic cost. According to NAFSA, a US nonprofit organization that focuses on international education and student exchange, during the 2023-2024 academic year, just over 1.1 million international students in the United States contributed $43.8 billion to the US economy and created over 378,000 jobs. International students made up 5.6 percent of nearly 19 million college and university students across the U.S., with students from India (29 percent) and China (25 percent) making up 54 percent of the total. The top three states hosting foreign students during the 23-24 school year were California (140,858), New York (135,813), and Texas (89,546). A total of 12 states gained more than $1 billion each from foreign students, generating 57 percent of their total dollar contribution to the U.S. economy.
If international students do not return for the 2025-2026 school year, the economies of those 12 states will lose that $1 billion in revenue. Maryland is one of those states. Business owners are warning of potential financial devastation if international students are not able to return this fall. In places like Baltimore, businesses near Johns Hopkins University paint a bleak future without foreign students. The owner of an Indian restaurant near the Hopkins campus said that business was down almost 50 percent after students left for the summer. “If they don’t return this fall, we’re not going to survive a year or two,” he said. NAFSA estimates that international students and recent graduates infuse $1 billion into the Maryland economy, supporting 10,180 jobs.’
Trends indicate a shrinking pool of traditional college-aged students in the United States, prompting colleges to scramble to adapt. International students, who typically pay full tuition and require little to no financial aid, are often more academically well-prepared and are a lifeline for many colleges. In addition, they bring cultural diversity, global perspectives, and intellectual vibrancy, enriching campus life for all students.
As a former Foreign Service Officer who served as a visa officer in my first two assignments, I can attest that student visa applicants are already among the most stringently vetted of nonimmigrant visa applicants. The current additional restrictions risk discouraging international students from coming to the U.S. to study. Enrollments might decline significantly as new students are prevented from entering or decide to apply elsewhere, and students already in the country are required to leave.
The loss of foreign students will have an immediate negative impact as already mentioned. U.S. education is a valuable service export that is roughly equivalent to exports of wheat, corn, coal, and natural gas combined. In addition, they are an important revenue source for both public and private educational institutions. In 2020, it was estimated that American universities would lose approximately $2.15 billion in tuition revenue from the U.S.-China trade war as enrollment of Chinese students declined. As the new directives are applied to students from all countries, the losses will only increase. The revenue from full-pay foreign students helps to provide subsidies for American students, few of whom can afford to pay full tuition.
Even if these restrictions are lifted, the American educational system will have already suffered reputational damage that will be hard to repair, and the country will lose the knowledge creation and innovation from foreign students and graduates, which has been key to the country’s long-term, sustained economic growth.
It's difficult to see the upside of the current ‘war’ on foreign students, while the negatives are many. If the administration is truly committed to making the country prosper, this petty act of cutting off our nose leaves a rational person’s head spinning.
Charles A. Ray spent 20 years in the U.S. Army with two tours in Vietnam. He retired as a senior US diplomat, serving 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, with assignments as ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Zimbabwe, and was the first American consul general in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He also served in senior positions with the Department of Defense and is a member of The Steady State.
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 290 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.