President Donald Trump’s deputies are capping migrant student visas at four years, making it more difficult for white-collar migrants to sneak into Americans’ professional jobs.
“For too long, past Administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the U.S. virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amounts of taxpayer dollars, and disadvantaging U.S. citizens,” said a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, which added:
This new proposed rule would end that abuse once and for all by limiting the amount of time certain visa holders are allowed to remain in the U.S.
The new rule will make it harder for foreigners — mostly Indians — to hopscotch their way from job to job to green cards via various college courses and President George Bush’s huge Optional Practical Training work permit program.
The modest curbs are good news for American graduates and their parents.
The changes were denounced by pro-migration groups, especially by pro-Indian advocates. “The most brutal I’ve seen … over the last 40 years,” claimed one Indian advocate. “The new F1 rules effectively closes the F1 [to] H1B [program] pipeline,” lamented one Indian advocate.
The F-1 visa currently has no expiration date. That quirk allows young foreigners to snag short-term work permits by paying tuition to colleges. In turn, they use the work permits to jump from one white-collar job to another, often via co-ethnic hiring networks.
Many of the migrants take the low-salaried jobs because they are seeking permanent legal status — and are willing to push many American youths out of university slots and American graduates out of career-track professional jobs.
The four-year reform also applies to the J-1 visas — which are often used by university scientists — and sets much shorter times for the I visas granted to foreign journalists.
The draft rule was released this week, allowing for comments by citizens, migrants, lawyers, lobbyists, employers, and universities.
In 2023, 1.6 million people were admitted with F-1 visas, 500,000 people with J-1 visas, and almost 33,000 with I visas, according to the draft.
The announcement also calms widespread concerns that Trump’s deputies want to annually import hundreds of thousands of foreign graduates.
This week, Trump seemed to suggest that he wants to double the inflow of Chinese students into U.S. colleges.
“The president’s point of view is that what would happen if you didn’t have those 600,000 students is that you’d empty them from the top, all the students would go up to better schools, and the bottom 15 percent of universities and colleges would go out of business in America,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox News.
The comments about Chinese students provoked a massive wave of criticism from pro-American influencers and parents. “You are talking national suicide here,” said investors and physicist Eric Weinstein. “Can’t candy-coat it: you’d be giving away the store.”
On Wednesday, officials clarified the comments about 600,000 Chinese students:
President Trump isn’t proposing an increase in student visas for Chinese students. The 600k references two years worth of visas. It’s simply a continuation of existing policy.
The new move to cap the F-1 visas, however, is a modest step.
The visa curbs do not cancel Bush’s “Optional Practical Training” program that annually provides work permits to 400,000 foreign students and graduates of U.S. colleges. Overall, companies keep roughly 1.5 million foreign graduates in U.S. jobs.
Artificial Intelligence technology appears to be wiping out many starter and mid-career jobs in high-tech sectors.
Many foreign-born managers are working with corporate directors to transfer millions of existing white-collar jobs out of the United States to India and other lower-salary countries.
Still, Trump and his deputies are zig-zagging in the right direction. For example, USCIS officials are also planning to revamp the H-1B visa program, which imports roughly 120,000 foreign graduates each year.
Officials are also deporting migrnats who violate the terms of their visas:
But the limited changes do not end the incentive to sneak into U.S. white-collar jobs. That incentive has created a huge industry of coyotes, immigraiton layers, and consultants who look for gaps and loopholes in U.S. law:
GOP politicians are voicing more criticism of the H-1B program.
“The current H1B visa system is a scam that lets foreign workers fill American job opportunities,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tweeted on August 26. “Hiring American workers should be the priority of all great American businesses.”
“It has become a total scam,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News. “It is almost like a form of indentured servitude.”
“Is it time to pause H-1B visas?” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) asked on August 25.
Meanwhile, students, graduates, and managers from China and India are using white-collar jobs to help shift U.S. wealth to their home countries:
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