Trump can’t restrict how long foreign students stay in the US, says court

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new visa rule that would have limited how long foreign students and journalists can stay in the US. The order was issued by US District Judge F Dennis Saylor in Boston, a day before the Department of Homeland Security's rule was set to take effect.

Saylor ruled in favour of a coalition of unions and higher education advocacy groups that challenged the policy.

He said the Department of Homeland Security had adopted the rule based on "exceptionally weak" reasons and failed to meet legal obligations to address concerns and consider less burdensome alternatives, despite citing national security and fraud prevention.

The rule, adopted in July, aimed to replace the system under which the US has issued visas to foreign students for their "duration of status" for nearly five decades. Saylor noted that the change would disrupt this longstanding system and impose substantial restrictions on the number of foreign students, professors, and journalists in the country.

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Under the blocked rule, F visas for international students and J visas for visitors on cultural exchange programmes who can work in the US would have been capped at four years. I visas for journalists, which can currently last for years, would have been limited to 240 days.

Saylor highlighted that the existing system has allowed tens of millions of foreign students and researchers to come to the US, contributing to groundbreaking research in science, medicine, and technology, as well as substantial economic growth. He also pointed out that major research universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard have large shares of foreign students, especially at the graduate level.

About 1.6 million people currently hold F visas and another 500,000 hold J visas, the judge noted. He said universities would likely face hundreds of millions of dollars in costs and lower enrolment if the rule took effect. "The damage to the higher education system and to the economy of the United States is likely to be catastrophic," Saylor wrote.

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The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. DHS General Counsel James Percival criticised the ruling, saying it would allow "rampant abuse" of the immigration system, with people staying on student visas for decades while taking minimal classes.

Miriam Feldblum, head of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and one of the plaintiffs, said the ruling recognised the harm the rule could cause to international students, universities, and the US economy. She said the relief preserves the longstanding system that helps colleges and universities attract, educate, and retain global talent while the case continues.

The ruling keeps the longstanding visa system in place for now as the case brought by unions and higher education groups proceeds in court.