US President Donald Trump’s administration has decided to impose strict restrictions on how long foreign students and journalists can stay in the United States.
According to the proposed change, foreign citizens will not be allowed to stay in the US on a student visa for more than four years.
Foreign journalists will be limited to a stay of only 240 days, although they can apply for an extension of an additional 240 days.
However, Chinese journalists will only receive 90-day visas.
The United States has so far generally issued visas for the duration of a student’s academic program or a journalist’s work, although no nonimmigrant visa is valid for more than 10 years.
The proposed changes were published in the Federal Register, initiating a short period for public comment before they went into effect.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has accused an unspecified number of foreigners of indefinitely extending their studies.
“Past administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the United States indefinitely, which has created security risks, cost untold taxpayer dollars, and inconvenienced American citizens,” the department said in a statement issued Wednesday.
“This proposed rule sends a message to talented people around the world that their contributions are not valued in the United States,” said Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.
Negative feedback
The announcement comes as universities begin to reopen their academic year following earlier steps taken by the Trump administration, and many are reporting a drop in international student enrollment.
However, Trump has praised his warm relationship with his counterpart Xi Jinping and said he wants to double the number of Chinese students in the United States to 600,000.
This statement confirms that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has backed away from his previous commitment to “aggressively” cancel Chinese student visas.
The US State Department said last week that it has canceled 6,000 student visas since Trump took office.
Trump has also suspended billions of dollars in federal research funding to universities, which his administration claims are not anti-Semitic, while the US Congress has sharply increased taxes on private university grants.
