Tom Cotton is either (A) a racist moron who doesn't understand the advantages of bringing the best and brightest to the US to study and then either stay here, or bring back their experiences in our democracy to their home countries—or (B) a cynical populist who pretends not to.

The legislation he is proposing would do untold harm to science in the United States, and would also dismantle a growing network of international scientific collaboration that transcends internal politics and thereby acts as a stabilizing force worldwide.

This proposed legislation is shockingly disproportional to the harm it purport to redress.

It would, almost without exception, "prohibit Chinese nationals from receiving visas to the United States for graduate or post-graduate studies in STEM fields."

Or I suppose there is a third possibility. Perhaps Senator Cotton welcomes the collateral damage: the further dismantling of US science and the US's global technological advantage.