The Deportation Whack-a-Mole for International Students

Wall Street Journal

06-05-2025

Editor's note: In this Future View, students discuss deportation policies. Next we'll ask: 'What personal or cultural factors are influencing the surge of young people from the U.S., France and the U.K. converting to Catholicism on college campuses?' Students should click here to submit opinions of fewer than 250 words by May 12. The best responses will be published Tuesday night.
Serve This Country
When the Nazis exiled their physicists, America split the atom. When the U.S. kicked out Jet Propulsion Laboratory founder Qian Xuesen during the Second Red Scare, China got the father of its space program. Now, in the era of drone swarms and large language models, we're debating whether to deport some drama-club jihadists for chanting on campus lawns—as if a handful of overgrown toddlers with rhyming signs could topple the republic that gave the world the internet. We used to absorb dissidents and turn them into weapons. Now, we mistake tantrums for treason. These students aren't spies or saboteurs. They're ballast—bored narcissists—elevated only by our panic.
While free speech is free, visas aren't. If they can't serve this country, why are they here? Foreign-born founders started 55% of America's billion-dollar startups. More than 70% of graduate students in electrical engineering and computer science are international. We can afford to jail traitors. We can afford to ignore clout-chasing protesters. What we can't afford is to scare off entrepreneurs and builders. Half of Silicon Valley has a foreign accent and a visa history. Shut that down, and you don't get patriotism. You get decay, drift and decline. Real regimes don't fear protest; they fear silence—because that means the smart people have already left.
—Allen Rubin, University of Austin, computer science
The U.S. Can Do It
Current deportation policies for international students are not only fair but essential for maintaining national security and the integrity of our immigration system. By accepting U.S. visas, students agree to follow specific rules. If they break those terms—through criminal behavior, overstaying, unauthorized work or activities harmful to national interests—they forfeit their right to remain and should be swiftly removed.
Some may argue that current deportation policies for international students infringe on First and Fifth Amendment protections, but this overlooks both the limited rights of noncitizens and the government's broad authority in immigration matters. Shaughnessy v. U.S. ex rel. Mezei (1953) affirmed the executive's power to detain and expel foreign nationals without hearings, while Fong Yue Ting v. U.S. (1893) established deportation as a sovereign administrative act not requiring judicial due process.
Moreover, the government's use of immigration laws to deport aliens who undermine American foreign policy and national security remains well within its constitutional authority. Deportation isn't about suppressing dissent; it's about enforcing agreed-on legal standards. Upholding those standards maintains fairness for those who follow the rules and protects the credibility of our immigration system. The Trump administration is simply enforcing laws that prior Democratic administrations overlooked.
—Santhosh Nadarajah, Princeton University, molecular biology
An American Brain Drain
Proposed legislation aimed at increasing scrutiny of international research ties, cuts to National Institutes of Health funding, and threats to deport foreign-born students have strained global collaboration during the past few months. The U.S. is quietly dismantling the academic engine that drives its global leadership. America's scientific dominance is built on decades of investment and international collaboration.
In my neuroscience laboratory, my postdoctorate mentor, an internationally-trained Alzheimer's expert with major publications in the scientific journal Neuron, left the U.S. this past November in fear of immigration scrutiny despite her legal status. Her exit wasn't only a personal loss; it was a blow to American science. Schools are meant to be sanctuaries for discovery, not surveillance. If we keep driving out the minds behind great scientific breakthroughs, which country will lead the next crisis response?
—Inaam Zafar, University of California, Riverside, neuroscience
Don't Discriminate
If an international student comes to the U.S. not to get an education but to operate as a political agitator and undermine campus safety, then it's fair for the government to exercise discretion in whether or not that person has a right to stay. Many of the worst offenders in recent protests have sought to exploit their student visas to advocate against U.S. foreign policy. They forget that it is a privilege, not a right, to study in America.
There should be consequences for students who call for the erasure of the Jewish people. The chant 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' is considered antisemitic under the definition produced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which has recently been adopted by universities such as Harvard.
Many students who have been taken into ICE custody have shown support for U.S designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah and participated in hateful and disruptive campus protests. To engage in debate and activism is fine—but advocating discrimination is anathema to American values, which is exactly what these protesters have been doing.
Advertisement
—Becky Flanagan, New York University, real estate and architecture
Come, Study and Stay
In 1970 the U.S. hosted roughly 36% of the global international student population. By 1995 that number shrank to 30%. In 2025 America is on track to host less than 16%. International students help the U.S. by bringing consumption power, innovation, perspective and culture.
America needs these students to study and stay in America. Foreign-born women are projected to have roughly a 20% higher fertility rate than women born in the U.S. Foreign-born graduates of U.S. colleges start companies, buy homes and invest in the American economy. They also earn more than the average American.
The U.S. has remained the most competitive nation in the world by attracting brilliant minds. Albert Einstein, Sergey Brin, Elon Musk and Joseph Pulitzer are jexamples. We better pray the next generation of geniuses make the same selection.
—James W. Knopf, University of Washington, construction management
Click here to submit a response to next week's Future View.