Presidents’ Alliance calls Trump policies harmful to foreign students, while immigration expert says schools should invest in U.S. citizens
The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s policy proposals as harmful to foreign students during a virtual briefing this month.
One immigration expert, however, told The College Fix that schools should put “the interests of Americans first.”
“We’re looking at another Trump administration in which they’ve promised many things in respect to immigration, mass deportations,” Alliance leader Louis Caldera said during the briefing.
These things “are not in the interest of our campuses … and would hurt students,” he said.
The Alliance unites “American college and university leaders dedicated to increasing public understanding of how immigration policies and practices impact our students,” according to its website. It was launched to “protect undocumented students,” Caldera said.
In a news release announcing the briefing, the Alliance reaffirmed its “steadfast commitment to undocumented, immigrant-origin, international, and refugee students.”
“This briefing aimed to equip campus leaders with a clear understanding of the post-election policy landscape and provide actionable steps they can take to advocate for and support immigrant, international, and refugee students,” the event description reads.
Another speaker, President of TheDream.US Gabby Pacheco, said Trump’s immigration policies are “less so tools for them to actually do something, but more so tools to create fear.”
Trump may force communities to make “very tough decisions to either leave or try to find refuge because they are just so scared,” she said.
Pacheco, who leads a college success program for illegal immigrants, called this “psychological warfare.”
“We saw them play with immigrants … and likely the rhetoric is just going to get way worse,” she said.
Niskanen Center Immigration Policy Analyst Cecilia Esterline gave an overview of some of the “troubling” policies she believes Trump’s administration will enact.
She said she expects Trump’s immigration policy to closely resemble Project 2025, an initiative led by the Heritage Foundation to create conservative policy proposals. Some of the project’s goals are to “secure the border, finish building the wall, and deport illegal aliens;” “de-weaponize the Federal Government;” and “ban biological males from competing in women’s sports,” according to the policy handbook.
MORE: Trump (still) needs to enforce this illegal immigrant tuition law
Esterline directed The Fix to an article she wrote titled “Unveiling the far right’s plan to demolish immigration in a second Trump term” when reached for comment.
Trump’s proposals are “a meticulously orchestrated, comprehensive plan to drive immigration levels to unprecedented lows and increase the federal government’s power to the states’ detriment,” she wrote in the article.
On the other hand, Center for Immigration Studies Director Jon Feere told The College Fix in an email that universities should admit fewer illegal immigrants following Trump’s election.
“[I]llegal aliens are to be deported, so it makes little sense for a college to deny a legal resident a seat in favor of a person who might be returned to their home country at any moment,” he said.
“Schools should be investing in U.S. citizens and legal residents rather than foreign nationals who think they are above the law,” Feere said.
Feere told The College Fix that the issue is much bigger than the small number of illegal aliens at schools. It’s also about the nearly 1.5 million foreign students on American campuses.
“The federal government should take a hard look at the foreign student program and ensure that it operates in a manner that puts the interests of Americans first,” Feere said.
“For a number of years now, the educational system has been operating as a foreign worker program rather than an educational program with the controversial Optional Practical Training program, for example,” he said.
“Many foreign nationals are gaming the foreign student program and using it as a means to remain in the country for countless years while seeking to obtain H-1B visas,” Feere said.
This was never Congress’s intent when it established the foreign student program. It was “meant to focus on cultural exchange,” he said.
Further, “schools have allowed their student body population to become majority foreign student, either campus-wide or within certain degree fields,” Feere said.
He suggested Congress “consider limits” to help American students excel in STEM fields.
MORE: ‘Authoritarian regime’: Wesleyan president blasts Trump as threat to ‘undocumented’ students
IMAGE: Presidents’ Alliance/Youtube
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