Stop Scaring Future World Leaders Off US Campuses
Here's yet another way in which President Donald Trump is making America neither Great Again nor strong, but weaker, and for a long time to come: He's sabotaging the US-centered transnational intellectual and personal networks that have amplified American power, by breaking the pipeline of future leaders of foreign countries who were educated and shaped in the United States.
His administration was doing that by expelling, harassing or intimidating foreigners at US universities. It revoked the visas of more than 1,400 international students on American campuses. In some cases, the government alleged that students were pro-Palestinian protestors, in others that they committed 'crimes,' even if those turned out to be unpaid parking tickets or non-existent. Many of the revocations had no clear rationale at all. As part of the specific showdown between the White House and Harvard University, the administration even threatened to stop the institution from enrolling international students altogether.
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