Trump Comments ‘Foreign Students Are Good Business’: Renewed Hopes for Students Abroad?

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On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump, in a counterintuitive jibe, endorsed having foreign students in U.S. Universities. This comment was made by the U.S. President in an interview with Fox News.

Addressing his remarks to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump remarked that curtailing international students from U.S. universities would be a financially destructive venture.

Does this mean renewed hope for foreign students aspiring to study in American Academia? Our EB-1A experts have scoped right into that big question. Here is our breakdown and insight on this poignant comment, as always.

What exactly did Trump say, and what was the context?

Let us take a look at Trump’s exact comment: “You don’t want to cut half of the people, half of the students from all over the world that are coming into our country — destroy our entire university and college system — I don’t want to do that. I actually think it’s good to have outside countries. Look, I want to be able to get along with the world.”

This comment emerged from the president when Ingraham repeatedly pressed him on whether he would endorse limiting the number of foreign students. She also argued in the same context that the move would make it easier for Americans to enrol. Interestingly and very counterintuitively, Trump’s comment shows a diplomatic rejection of the idea; he reasoned that it would cause financial harm to the universities and other institutions, including the historically black colleges and the other smaller institutions that financially depend on international tuition.

Trump went on saying: “We do have a lot of people coming in from China, we always have China and other countries. If we were to cut that in half, which perhaps makes some people happy, you would have half the colleges in the United States go out of business.”

The U.S. President also added a financial projection in his comment, implying how the foreign students contribute “trillions of dollars” and pay “more than double” compared to the domestic students. A concluding remark adds a sense of the President’s avowal of the world order despite his personal desire: “I want to see our school system thrive. It’s not that I want them, but I view it as a business.”

The impact of the remark in the broader immigration landscape

We are mostly accustomed to seeing the contrary actions of the Trump Administration. The administration has previously imposed tougher visa screening measures, including social media vetting. Moreover, the administration has also put forward a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that aims to cap international student enrolment at 15 per cent of the total undergraduate numbers, and an added restriction of a 5 per cent limit from a single country.

However, the most recent comment of Trump has rekindled the hopes of the foreign students to a certain extent. The remark also shows the President’s priority of financial stability over ideological views and his openness to foreign students from all over the world. We may hopefully anticipate a reflection of this mindset in the administrative policy as well.

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