Several Asian American groups and leaders are blasting a newly revealed State Department policy to prevent many Chinese international students from studying in colleges and universities in the United States.
The U.S. State Department on May 28 put out a notice that it “will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”
The department, in the brief note, also said it would “revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
An estimated 277,000 or so students from China enrolled last school year in U.S. colleges and universities, with many studying at elite institutions in the Greater Boston area, such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as other major universities such as Boston University and Northeastern. The crackdown is the latest in a barrage of attacks on student visa holders and immigrant groups by the Trump administration, which had made limiting immigration a central focus of its campaign.
“The wholesale revocation of student visas based on national origin — and without an investigation — is xenophobic and wrong,” wrote the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus in a statement, according to an email from the office of U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, a Democrat of New York. “Turning these students away — many of whom simply wish to learn in a free and democratic society — is not just shortsighted but a betrayal of our values.”
The caucus also warned of brain drain from the U.S. if these students stop studying here, arguing that for decades the U.S. “has drawn some of the world’s brightest minds — particularly from China — to fill talent shortages and to maintain our competitive advantage.”
In addition, it noted that international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2023-2024 academic year, according to figures by the nonprofit group, NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC called Sec. Rubio’s announcement “yet another blow to international students and academia by the Trump administration.”
The group went on to say that it agreed that national security should be a top priority but criticized what it called “fearmongering, racial profiling, and xenophobia” by the administration.
Both groups criticized what they called vague language around the new policy, with Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC saying it risks casting all Chinese students as a “threat to national security, when the reality is that the overwhelming majority of students simply come here to learn.”
For centuries, Asian Americans have been the target of discriminatory policies in the U.S., such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. But at the same time, the U.S. has long criticized China over the production of counterfeit goods and the theft of intellectual property, with accusations reported in recent years that data was taken from major companies such as GE, chemical firms, and semiconductor and computer technology companies. Worries over stolen technology go back decades, and spans many industries, including agriculture.
“We agree that anyone who comes to the United States under false pretenses to gather intelligence with the intention of benefiting a foreign adversary like the Chinese Communist Party has no place here, and should be addressed,” wrote the caucus lawmakers. “However, the lack of any details about the process or standards by which (the State Department intends) to conduct this review raises serious concerns that innocent students will be caught up in this ordeal, simply because they are of Chinese descent. That’s not smart national security policy — it’s just un-American,” wrote the lawmakers.
The move comes after a bill was introduced by U.S. Rep. Riley M. Moore, a Republican of West Virginia, in March that sought to stop the issuance of student visas to Chinese nationals. The “The Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act” would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to include language prohibiting the admission of Chinese nationals as “nonimmigrant” students. It has so far not advanced in Congress.
In response to efforts to revoke visas and detain international students, several U.S. lawmakers from Massachusetts penned a letter seeking to appeal to Kristi Noem, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and expressing “grave” concerns over the detentions, deportations and attempts to block and remove students.
“The Administration’s apparent hostility to international students contributes to an overall climate of fear on campuses. This trend creates a chilling effect that discourages the best and brightest students from around the world from coming to study in the United States — which harms not only current and prospective international students, but also American universities, U.S. citizen students on campuses, and, in the long term, the nation’s prosperity and economic growth,” argued the lawmakers who signed the May 28 letter. Among the signatories were Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ayanna Pressley and Edward Markey and Reps. Seth Moulton and Stephen F. Lynch.
