Trump administration will “aggressively revoke” some Chinese language college students’ visas, Rubio says
The federal authorities will start revoking the visas of some Chinese language worldwide college students, together with these finding out in “important fields,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned Wednesday — the newest restriction on international college students.
“Below President Trump’s management, the U.S. State Division will work with the Division of Homeland Safety to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese language college students, together with these with connections to the Chinese language Communist Occasion or finding out in important fields,” Rubio wrote in an announcement.
Rubio additionally mentioned the federal government will “revise visa standards to boost scrutiny of all future visa functions from the Individuals’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
China is the second-largest nation of origin for worldwide college students, behind solely India. Within the 2023-24 faculty yr, greater than 270,000 worldwide college students had been from China, making up roughly 1 / 4 of all international college students in america.
The motion comes at a time of intensifying scrutiny of the ties between U.S. larger training and China. Home Republicans this month pressed Duke College to chop its ties with a Chinese language college, saying it allowed Chinese language college students to realize entry to federally-funded analysis at Duke.
Final yr, Home Republicans issued a report warning that a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in protection funding was going to analysis partnerships linked to the Chinese language authorities, offering “back-door entry to the very international adversary nation whose aggression these capabilities are mandatory to guard in opposition to.”
The announcement got here a day after the State Division advised embassies and consulates worldwide to briefly cease scheduling new pupil visa interviews, in a cable obtained by CBS Information. The cable mentioned the division is making ready “expanded social media vetting” of visa candidates.
The 2 coverage modifications from the State Division added to uncertainty for America’s worldwide college students, who’ve confronted intensifying scrutiny from the Trump administration.
The federal government has tried to revoke authorized standing for 1000’s of worldwide college students, a lot of whom appeared to attract federal scrutiny because of minor authorized infractions — although a federal decide has halted that follow. And the administration has sought to deport a number of pro-Palestinian pupil activists below a legislation permitting visas to be revoked if any person poses “opposed international coverage penalties.”
Earlier this week, the Trump administration tried to halt all worldwide pupil enrollments at Harvard College. A decide blocked the transfer, a part of a wider battle between the federal government and the Ivy League faculty over its dealing with of campus protests.
President Trump mentioned Wednesday that Harvard, whose present pupil inhabitants is greater than 25% worldwide, ought to restrict that proportion to about 15%.
“I need to make certain the international college students are folks that may love our nation,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
