How the Trump administration's crackdown on international students could affect the economy

The Trump administration has proposed a $70,000 charge tied to each international graduate who wants to work in the United States through Optional Practical Training, adding to a run of measures aimed at foreign students. Fanta Aw, chief executive of NAFSA, says nothing before has matched the volume of policies directed at them, according to PBS NewsHour.

Those steps include tougher visa screening, the cancellation of legal status for thousands of students, a fixed four-year limit on student visas that a federal judge paused, and steeper costs for H-1B work visas. Several actions have been stopped by courts. Homeland Security justifies the OPT fee as putting American interests and workers first, while officials have also pointed to fraud and national security. NAFSA's preliminary estimate projects 111,000 fewer international students in 2026 and as much as $3.4 billion in lost revenue.

Experts describe students as feeding a pipeline from campus to the workforce and eventually citizenship. Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, notes that most of the more than 1 million foreign students pay full tuition, helping subsidize Americans' education, and denies they displace citizens.

Summarized by PolitiKool from PBS NewsHour’s reporting. Read the full story at PBS NewsHour →