Latest news with #studentVisa
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- General
- Bloomberg
Rubio's Student Visa Pause Makes No Sense — and Does Real Harm
This is a season of anxiety for international students in the US, who find themselves demonized by the Trump administration as it devises new ways to limit their numbers. The latest tactic came in a diplomatic cable from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to US embassies and consulates abroad, ordering a halt to the student visa interviews necessary to enter the country.
CNA
6 days ago
- General
- CNA
Foreign students wary of US as Trump presses 'dehumanising' campaign
Donald Trump's expanding crackdown on elite universities is prompting some international students to abandon applications to campuses in the United States and spreading stress and anxiety among those already enrolled. The president has damaged the country's reputation among foreign students, who number around one million, as he pursues a campaign against US universities he views as hindering his Make America Great Again populist agenda. He has blocked Harvard from hosting international scholars in a manoeuvre being challenged legally, targeted non-citizen campus activists for deportation, and most recently, suspended student visa processing across the board. Harvard applied mathematics and economics student Abdullah Shahid Sial, 20, said the Trump administration's campaign against US universities, which the president accused of being hotbeds of liberal bias and antisemitism, had been "dehumanising". "It's really unfortunate that this is the case for 18, 19, and 20-year-olds who came here without any family, and in most cases, haven't been to the US before," said Sial, who is from Pakistan and hopes to be able to return to Harvard next academic year. Sial said he advised acquaintances to have backup plans if US colleges became inaccessible, and that a friend applied to Harvard's law school, as well as Columbia's, and two less reputable British institutions, ultimately opting to go to the UK. "He definitely liked Harvard way more (but) he doesn't want this amount of uncertainty surrounding his education," Sial said. Karl Molden, a Harvard government and classics student from Austria, said Trump's move to block the university from hosting and enrolling foreign students meant he was unsure if he would be able to return after summer vacation. "IN THE DARK" While that decision - affecting some 27 per cent of the overall Harvard population - was paused by a judge pending a hearing Thursday (May 29), the move still threw student plans into chaos. "I kind of figured I would be in the target group of Trump. I'm personally right in the middle of it, so an option for me would be to study abroad ... I have applied to study at Oxford because of all the action taken by Trump," said Molden, 21. "It's just really hard." Harvard academics say they have already started to feel the impact of Trump's vendetta against the school, in feedback from colleagues based outside the United States. "I've already heard this from professors in other countries who say 'we encourage our best students to go to the United States'," Harvard professor Ryan Enos told AFP at a noisy rally against Trump's policies Tuesday, adding, "We wonder if we can tell them that anymore". The halt to visa processing revealed this week is reportedly to allow for more stringent screening of applicants' social media and protest activity. "International students already represent the most tracked and vetted category of nonimmigrants in the United States. It is a poor use of taxpayer dollars," said the NAFSA Association of International Educators non-profit. Trump, meanwhile, continued his assault on Harvard, saying university leaders have "got to behave themselves. "Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper," he said Wednesday in the White House. One Spanish student of politics and statistics, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, told AFP she would not be deterred from pursuing her planned year abroad at Columbia University. "It's scary, because we think to ourselves that all our activity on social networks could be monitored, for example, if we like pro-Palestinian posts or anti-Trump posts. All of that could see us denied a visa," she said. Students due to return to Harvard after the summer break are in limbo pending a ruling on Harvard's exclusion from the foreign student system. "I'm completely in the dark," said 20-year-old Alfred Williamson, a Welsh-Danish physics and government student in his second year at Harvard. "As for my other options, and like all other international students, I'm just clinging on to the hope that Harvard will win this battle against the White House." Sial, the Harvard student from Pakistan, said foreign students like him were "made to fight this battle which no one signed up for." "It's really unfortunate that it's come down to that."
LBCI
6 days ago
- General
- LBCI
China calls on US to protect rights of foreign students after visa hold
China called for the United States to protect the rights of foreign students on Wednesday, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered a suspension of student visa processing amid a crackdown on universities. "We urge the U.S. side to earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news conference. AFP
BBC News
7 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
US halts student visa appointments and plans expanded social media vetting
The Trump administration has ordered US embassies to stop scheduling appointments for students visa and to expand social media vetting of foreigners applying to study at American a copy of a memo sent to diplomatic posts, and viewed by the BBC's US partner CBS News, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the pause in student visa appointments would last "until further guidance is issued".Rubio's message said the temporary pause was in preparation for expanded social media vetting on student and foreign exchange visas, which would have "significant implications" for embassies and administration has in recent months taken steps to revoke a number of visas for pro-Palestinian activist students, as part of what the White House has described as an effort to combat antisemitism on campuses. The state department memo directed US embassies on Tuesday to remove any unfilled appointments from their calendars for students seeking visas, but said those with appointments already scheduled could go message also said the state department was preparing for an "expansion of required social media screening and vetting" applicable to all student visa administration seeks to pull estimated $100m in Harvard fundingForeign students who want to study in the US are usually required to schedule interviews at an American embassy in their home country before asked about student visas, state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday: "We take very seriously the process of vetting who it is that comes into the country, and we're going to continue to do that."The Trump administration has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for universities and moved to deport several students, while revoking thousands of visas for others. Many of these actions have been blocked by the White House has accused some US universities of failing to protect Jewish students on have accused the Trump administration of trying to infringe upon universities' free speech University has been the focal point of President Donald Trump's ire. He also accuses it of flouting a Supreme Court ruling by engaging in discriminatory admissions week, the Trump administration revoked Harvard's ability to enrol international students or host foreign researchers. A federal judge blocked the Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Harvard was handed the penalty for "fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus".
Bloomberg
7 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Harvard Set to Lose All Federal Contracts
00:00 So this would be another $100 million worth that the Trump administration will be taking away. Is it doable? It would just compound the financial attacks that the Trump administration has already opened on Harvard. They have already frozen more than $2.6 billion of funding that primarily went to research. They have threatened to Harvard's tax exempt status. They have moved to block the school from enrolling international students. So it's really a multipronged attack on Harvard's financial well-being. And in fact, more on that political reporting just in the last hour or so that the U.S. is ordering a halt to student visa interviews. You reportedly pending a decision on whether or not it wants to vet social media. So the Trump administration clearly not too worried about Mark Zuckerberg or any of these people that are running these social media sites. If that's the route, it's going down to try and fight Harvard in the courts. But what is Harvard doing to defend itself, just not just on the international students side of things, but on these federal grounds? Is there anything you can do to fight this action? Sure. And just a point about, you know, the companies that many companies look to, that talent pool that comes out of Harvard and many other universities across the U.S., which do rely on international students to help develop that next generation of workers for the U.S.. And so, you know, I think a number of companies have a vested interest in continuing to see international students come to the U.S. and learn here at these institutions. Now, in terms of what Harvard is doing, they have now filed two different lawsuits against the Trump administration, one challenging those funding freezes that we talked about, arguing that it is a situation of government overreach, where the Trump administration is looking to assert more control over how Harvard manages its academic student campus disciplinary processes. And then the other suit involves the step to block international student enrollment. Now, it does have $53 billion in assets. Can Harvard wait this out, assuming there is an end to this onslaught at some point? And is it getting support from other universities? Sure. I mean, I think that $53 billion endowment, while it is important, is somewhat of a misnomer because it's not just this giant pile of money that Harvard has sitting around that it can draw from to plug these spending gaps. There are parameters on much of that money, some of it coming from the donors that provided the money in the first place that want to see those funds go to endow specific scholarships or support particular schools, whatever it might be. The money is also locked up in longer term investments. So Harvard can't just use it like an ATM. But it is you know, Harvard is the richest US university, which does give it more of a buffer to fight back against these actions. And I think that's part of the reason why you're seeing the school take this stand that, you know, if Harvard weren't to push back on some of these demands from the Trump administration, it would make it harder for smaller schools who are not as robustly funded to fight back.
