Trump's Harmful and Unjust New Restrictions on Foreign Students |
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Higher Education
Trump's Harmful and Unjust New Restrictions on Foreign Students
They are likely to damage the US economy and deny many people valuable educational opportunities for no good reason.
Ilya Somin | 7.18.2026 7:09 PM
Pkchai | Dreamstime.com
The Trump administration recently adopted new, gratuitously restrictive, rules constraining foreign students at US universities. My Cato Institute colleague David Bier, a leading expert on immigration policy, has a helpful piece summarizing the policy changes, and their pernicious nature:
Previously, international students on F visas, exchange visitors on J visas, and foreign media on I visas were granted admission for their "duration of status"—that is, for as long as they were in status or following the rules of the visa programs. DHS's final rule replaces that with a fixed period of entry of no more than four years (for international students and exchange visitors). But it does far more than end open-ended admission. Littered throughout it is a set of unprecedented restrictions with no statutory basis.
Students can't change majors or transfer schools in year one—and graduate students can't ever. The rule's own summary states it plainly:For F‑1 students changing educational objectives or transferring to an SEVP-certified school, requiring that the student complete his or her first academic year of a program of study at the school that initially issued his or her Form I‑20 or successor form, unless an exception is authorized by SEVP; Prohibiting F‑1 students at the graduate education level or above from changing educational objectives at any point during a program of study.
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