Foreign student crackdown just beginning

Politico

5 days ago

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In an escalation of the Trump administration's war with the country's top colleges, some of the most powerful people in the White House are making the case to significantly limit international students' presence at U.S. universities.
The White House has already moved to restrict foreign students at Harvard University and attempted to revoke the green cards and visas of pro-Palestinian student activists. The administration intensified that posture last week, when Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO announced that the U.S. would 'aggressively revoke' visas for some Chinese students.
Rubio and President DONALD TRUMP have largely framed those crackdowns as a matter of national security. But some influential figures in and around the White House say foreign students limit the opportunities available to American students.
In March, Vice President JD VANCE said that international students studying in the United States are 'bad for the American dream, for American kids who want to go to a nice university but can't because their spot was taken by a foreign student.'
Cutting down on the number of foreign students is 'actually an opportunity for American students to really flourish,' he said Thursday on Newsmax.
'This idea that American students don't have the talent to do great things, that you have to import a foreign class of [students] and professors to do these things — I just reject that,' the vice president added. 'I think [if] we invest in our own people, we can do a lot of good.'
STEPHEN MILLER, the White House deputy chief of staff responsible for much of Trump's domestic policy agenda, including the crackdown on elite universities, echoed Vance on Friday. Asked about the revocation of Chinese student visas, Miller told reporters, 'we don't do enough in this country to reward and celebrate American genius.'
'We want to have an immigration policy that allows … people who have specialized knowledge to be able to contribute to our national economic security,' Miller added. 'What we can't do is have a system that deprives Americans of an opportunity to contribute to their own country.'
About 1.1 million international students studied in the U.S. during the 2023-24 academic year, according to federal data, representing just under 6 percent of the total U.S. university enrollment. But top universities tend to take higher proportions of international students, composing nearly 30 percent of Harvard's student body and about 40 percent of Columbia University's. Those students are generally not eligible for federal or state financial aid and tend to receive less aid from colleges and universities than domestic students.
'A lot of these foreign students, most of them pay full freight,' Vance said in March. 'Sometimes at an elite university, like a Columbia or a Harvard, you have a well qualified, middle-class American kid from the heartland who doesn't get a spot in these universities because some Chinese oligarch who's paying $100,000 a year takes up that spot.'
The United States is unambiguously home to the world's top universities, with the Ivy League and its highly selective peers at the pinnacle. They pump out the world's most Nobel laureates and serve as a magnet for intelligent and ambitious students from across the globe.
XI MINGZE, the daughter of Chinese President XI JINPING, graduated from Harvard in 2014. And PRINCESS ELISABETH, heir apparent to the Belgian throne, is currently studying at Harvard (the Belgian Royal House is reportedly 'investigating' the situation for international students on campus).
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POTUS PUZZLER
Who was the first president to visit both Moscow and Beijing?
(Answer at bottom.)
Musk Radar
'A WHIPPING BOY': Two days after ELON MUSK bid goodbye to Washington, CBS News' 'Sunday Morning' aired its full interview with the Tesla CEO. Asked about how DOGE's unpopularity caused reputational damage to Musk and his companies, the billionaire called it 'a bit unfair,' adding that the initiative had become 'a whipping boy for everything.'
Musk then 'started talking about the Trump administration, without even being asked about Trump,' writes CBS News' DAVID POGUE. 'It's not like I agree with everything the administration does,' Musk said. He added: 'But it's difficult for me to bring that up in an interview because then it creates a bone of contention. So then, I'm a little stuck in a bind, where I'm like, well, I don't wanna, you know, speak up against the administration, but I also don't wanna take responsibility for everything this administration's doing.'
One example of that contention? Musk said he was 'disappointed' by the 'big, beautiful bill,' Trump's landmark legislation. CBS News aired a clip of that exchange last Tuesday — and the next day, Musk formally announced his departure.
Agenda Setting
CUTTING THROUGH THE RED TAPE: The Office of Personnel Management announced a new rule today that would make it easier to fire federal workers for 'serious misconduct' by cutting through red tape to 'improve the efficiency, rigor and timeliness by which OPM and agencies vet individuals for risk to the integrity and efficiency of the service,' Fox News' ANDREW MARK MILLER reports.
The rule would empower agencies to more easily terminate employees by giving them 'broader authority' to 'flag conduct' that is 'inconsistent with the public trust,' such as leaking information or evading taxes, OPM said.
CONSIDERING IMPOUNDMENT: Office of Management and Budget Director RUSSELL VOUGHT said on CNN Sunday that the White House was considering impoundment as a way to formalize DOGE's cuts without going through Congress, Axios' AVERY LOTZ reports.
Vought said the administration 'might' send all of DOGE's cuts to Congress for approval — but also said 'some we may not actually have to get ... Congress to pass the rescissions bills' because 'we have executive tools; we have impoundment.' That could set the stage for a Supreme Court fight over the Impoundment Control Act, which bars the president from cutting funding without Congress' permission.
EYE OF THE STORM: Hurricane season officially began Sunday, and state and local officials across the U.S. are concerned about the nation's ability and willingness to handle natural disasters, POLITICO's E&E News' CHELSEA HARVEY, ADAM ATON and THOMAS FRANK report.
Staff cuts at the National Weather Service have slightly worsened the accuracy of weather models. A pall of uncertainty hangs over the nation as Trump and his deputies speak about 'eliminating' the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And Democratic-led states fear the White House will cut off disaster aid if they spurn its deportation efforts.
Knives Out
UPHEAVAL AT FBI: Director KASH PATEL's vision of an FBI under Trump is quietly taking shape. Patel and Deputy Director DAN BONGINO have demoted, placed on leave and forced out agents and in an effort to hunt down the sources of news leaks — with Patel forcing employees to take polygraph tests, the NYT's ADAM GOLDMAN reports.
The moves are causing upheaval among staff at the FBI, eliciting fear and uncertainty as Patel and Bongino quickly restock senior ranks with agents and focus the agency on immigration issues.
TAKE TWO: The Trump administration is attempting to once again eliminate the small agency charged with investigating dangerous chemical accidents and releases, POLITICO's E&E News' ELLIE BORST reports. According to a supplement OMB released on Friday, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board would be 'permanently cancelled' by the end of September 2026.
It's not the first time Trump and Vought have tried to axe CSB. Trump during his first administration repeatedly asked Congress to zero out the CSB's budget, to no avail.
In the Courts
SCOTUS ON AGENCY LAYOFFS, PART DEUX: The Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court today with a second emergency request to block a federal judge in San Francisco from holding up layoffs of tens of thousands of federal employees, our JOSH GERSTEIN writes in.
Solicitor General JOHN SAUER made a similar request last month, seeking to halt a temporary restraining order U.S. District Judge SUSAN ILLSTON issued stopping the reductions in force across most of the executive branch. Sauer pulled that application after Illston, a BILL CLINTON appointee, followed up with a preliminary injunction that found a Trump executive order prompted agencies to carry out the layoffs without following legally required procedures. Sauer contended in both high court filings that Trump's order is 'unquestionably lawful.'
While Illston's order applies nationwide, it was issued in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is overseen by Justice ELENA KAGAN. She gave the array of government worker unions, nonprofit groups and cities suing to stop the layoffs until next Monday to respond.
WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT
MASS EXODUS AT THE FAA: Resignations and retirements are building across the Federal Aviation Administration, potentially affecting divisions that oversee everything from air traffic to legal matters and space launches, WSJ's ANDREW TANGEL reports.
'Employees are departing the agency in mass quantities across all skill levels,' read a May 7 internal presentation to senior FAA management, outlining the effects of the deferred-resignation program. A similar presentation by the agency's human resources staff said that more than 1,200 employees were leaving under the program.
FORMER FED GETS ELECTED: A former U.S. Digital Service employee was elected to serve on the nonpartisan Haddonfield Borough Commission in New Jersey four months after quitting her federal government job, USA Today's SARAH WIRE reports. ITIR COLE's victory places her at the forefront of a flood of former federal workers looking to run for public office.
What We're Reading
DOGE vowed to make government more 'efficient' — but it's doing the opposite (WaPo's Hannah Natanson)
DOGE closed campgrounds at Pa.'s biggest lake. Now, the locals are suffering. (The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jason Nark)
Musk and DOGE are a metaphor for early months of Trump's administration (WaPo's Dan Balz)
The Secret History of Trump's Private Cellphone (The Atlantic's Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer)
Opinion: Is This the Beginning of the End of America's National Parks? (Ted Kerasote for NYT Opinion)
POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER
When he traveled to Beijing in February 1972, RICHARD NIXON became the first president to visit China. In May of the same year, Nixon became the first president to visit Moscow and the second to visit the Soviet Union, after former President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.