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| Daniel Torok/the White House/Flickr |
For half a century foreigners could enter graduate programs and take many years, far more than four, to complete their doctoral programs while remaining in the U.S. without any deadline to leave.
A new rule the Trump administration published earlier this month is finally addressing the flood of foreign students at U.S. universities plagued by anti-American ideology. Half a million of these students are illegal aliens, while more than a million additional college students are here on student visas, overwhelmingly from non-Western countries having political systems unlike or opposed to ours.
Trump has just ended this racket. Under a new rule issued by Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, most new F-1 students will receive visas that expire after a fixed period of time, usually four years. This puts healthy pressure on universities and students to reach the finish line as scheduled, rather than dawdle indefinitely in the academic cocoon. The average length of time in graduate studies has ballooned to more than seven years for a Ph.D., which harmfully causes students to delay having families and finding employment.
For half a century foreigners could enter graduate programs and take many years, far more than four, to complete their doctoral programs while remaining in the U.S. without any deadline to leave. The F-1 visa program has been allowing foreigners to remain on visas here for the “duration of their status” at their university, with no time limit.
The rule allows students to ask for an extension if they are unable to complete their degrees in the allotted time period, but the application process will run through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “This transitions oversight from university staff back to federal authorities and subjects applicants to biometric vetting, background checks, and fraud screenings,” the Department of Homeland Security noted.
Trump is also cutting back on the period in which foreigners may linger in the U.S. after completing their programs, reducing it from 60 to 30 days. International students who line up jobs here can seek other visa programs, but most should be returning to their homelands.
Trump’s regulatory changes also restrict transfers by foreigners from one university to another while here. Restrictions are being imposed on foreigners switching academic programs within their schools, too. “An F-1 student at any level below the graduate degree level may not change programs or educational objectives, i.e. majors or educational levels, within the first academic year of a program of study, unless an exception is authorized,” the rule states. The new rule takes effect on Sept. 15 of this year.
Until recently many states, including Republican-controlled Texas, went as far as allowing illegal aliens to benefit from low in-state tuition rates while Americans from out of state were forced to pay much higher rates. The unfair difference over four years can approach $100,000 per student. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images |
The new rule would end a decades-old policy allowing students to stay for the duration of their studies
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a proposed rule to limit the length of time international students can remain in the U.S. for their studies to four years.
If finalized, the proposed rule set to be published on Thursday would limit how long certain visa holders, including foreign students, are allowed to stay in the U.S., according to a press release from the Department of Homeland Security, which said the proposal seeks to curb "visa abuse" and increase the agency's ability to "properly vet and oversee these individuals."
The agency said foreign students have "taken advantage of U.S. generosity" and become "forever students" by remaining enrolled in colleges so they could stay in the U.S.
"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 amount of taxpayer dollars, and disadvantaging U.S. citizens," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
"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., easing the burden on the federal government to properly oversee foreign students and their history," the spokesperson continued.
Since 1978, foreign students, or F visa holders, have been allowed to remain in the U.S. for their "duration of status," which means the time they were enrolled as a full-time student. The proposed rule would allow foreign students and exchange visitors to stay in the country up to the duration of the program they are participating in, although the federal government would not permit it to exceed four years, which is typically less time than it takes to pursue any additional education beyond a bachelor's degree. --->READ MORE HERE
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