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This morning, on behalf of student governments and student unions at 51 universities, representing 850,000+ students, @ThatBBLane and I wrote to DHS in opposition to it's proposed rule limiting the length of student visas. 1/
https://www.cmu.edu/stugov/gsa/External-Advocacy/public-comment.pdf
https://www.cmu.edu/stugov/gsa/External-Advocacy/public-comment.pdf
The proposed rule will deter international students from pursuing education in the United States resulting in significant harm to the nation's education, scientific, economic, and defense capabilities. 2/
Without convincing evidence of a national security concern, the proposed rule places a 4-year maximum duration on student visas (subject to extension) while most doctoral degrees take over 6 years to complete. For undergraduates, this is 5.1 years. 3/ https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf20301/report/path-to-the-doctorate#time-to-degree
This comes after repeated calls from Congressional committees to attract and retain international students in the country, including the Bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force led by @sethmoulton and @RepJimBanks. 4/
Many students will only be eligible for 2 year visas (subject to extension), based on the country they were born in, the country they are a citizen of, their program of study, etc. 5/ https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1309144126793940995?s=20
They are using a flawed metric---visa overstay rates rather than visa overstays---to come to this "solution", punishing countries that send lesser no. of students to the US. But that's not the only issue! The data used to calculate overstays is flawed. 6/ https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1310769124109365248?s=20
The Department further suggests that this is necessary for national security. But here's the Department's own former Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention. 7/ https://twitter.com/NeuSummits/status/1309157551007830023?s=19
What about economic concerns? Turns out they acknowledge that the rule may deter international students from attending American universities. But they shrug it off and give no serious consideration to the economic costs for the nation. 8/ https://twitter.com/r_zwetsloot/status/1206989954984894464?s=20
At a time when international student enrollments are declining drastically, the Department is seeking to overturn a policy that has been in place for four decades, affects over 1 million students, and would impose over 2.5 billion in financial costs. 9/ https://twitter.com/crampell/status/1319757858225987584?s=20
Cities like Pittsburgh will be particularly affected by this rule as Mayor @billpeduto lays out here. 10/ https://twitter.com/billpeduto/status/1319992367697584129?s=20
This was echoed in a letter to DHS earlier this month by Pittsburgh City Councilperson @erikastrassbrgr. 11/ https://twitter.com/dkaushik96/status/1315711438250536962?s=20
Recognizing these concerns 106 House Democrats, led by @RepDebDingell and @repmarkpocan sent a letter to DHS asking that the rule be rescinded. 12/ https://twitter.com/dkaushik96/status/1313495131387985922?s=20
A similar letter was sent to DHS by 20 House GOP members led by @HerreraBeutler, last Friday. 13/
This is one in a series of attacks which @karinfischer discussed on #NPRShortwave last month (another thread). 14/ https://twitter.com/dkaushik96/status/1304893898045693952?s=20
These policies have long lasting negative impacts as @calebwatney shared in this article. 15/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/americas-innovation-engine-slowing/614320/
Not only does it pay no attention to the costs to the nation, it is also arbitrary and capricious. There is no justification for it and as the NYT editorial board put it: this would be a self-inflicted wound for the U.S. and must be rescinded. 16/16 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/opinion/visas-trump-students-journalists-us.html?referringSource=articleShare
