Judge blocks US visa limits for foreign students and journalists

Federal judge halts Trump administration rule on foreign visas

A federal judge in Boston on Monday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a Department of Homeland Security rule that would limit how long foreign students and journalists can remain in the United States without applying for extensions. The ruling came one day before the policy was scheduled to take effect.

US district judge F Dennis Saylor ruled for a coalition of unions and higher education advocacy groups challenging the policy. The case continues, but the order preserves the existing system for now.

Why the judge rejected the rule

Saylor said the Department of Homeland Security relied on “exceptionally weak” rationales when adopting the policy. The agency cited national security and the need to prevent fraud in the visa program.

The judge found that DHS had not met its legal obligations to address concerns about the policy change or consider alternatives that would impose less burden. He also said the rule would replace nearly five decades of issuing student visas for a person’s “duration of status.” Read the context: US cuts duration of foreign journalist visas, imposing stricter limits on Chinese reporters.

Key figures

F visas for international students would have been capped at four years.
J visas for cultural-exchange visitors would have been capped at four years.
I visas for journalists would have been limited to up to 240 days.
About 1.6 million people currently hold F visas, alongside about 500,000 J visa holders.

Potential impact on universities and the economy

Saylor wrote that the existing system had enabled tens of millions of foreign students and researchers to come to the United States, contributing to research in science, medicine and technology as well as economic growth.

The judge noted that research universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard have large proportions of foreign students, especially among graduate students. He said the rule could have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in costs and reduced enrollment, with potentially catastrophic damage to higher education and the US economy.

James Percival, DHS’s general counsel, criticized the ruling and said it would require US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to permit what he called abuse of the immigration system. Miriam Feldblum of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration said the decision recognized the harm the policy could cause to international students, universities and the economy.