A federal judge halted a Trump administration rule that sought to cap foreign student and journalist visas, citing weak justification and warning of catastrophic damage to U.S. higher education and the economy.
A federal judge in Boston has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new rule that would have sharply limited how long foreign students and journalists could remain in the United States without applying for extensions.
The ruling came a day before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was set to implement the policy.
District Judge F. Dennis Saylor ruled in favor of unions and higher education advocacy groups, saying DHS adopted the policy based on “exceptionally weak” rationales. The agency had cited national security and fraud prevention, but the court found it failed to meet legal obligations to consider alternatives or engage with concerns.
Saylor, appointed by George W. Bush, wrote that the rule would overturn a system in place for nearly five decades, under which visas were issued for the “duration of status.” That system, he noted, had enabled millions of foreign students and researchers to contribute to science, medicine, technology and economic growth.
What The Rule Proposed
The DHS rule, adopted in July, sought to cap F visas for international students and J visas for cultural exchange visitors at four years. I visas for journalists would have been limited to 240 days.
About 1.6 million people currently hold F visas and another 500,000 have J visas. Major universities like MIT and Harvard have large numbers of foreign students, particularly at the graduate level.
Saylor warned that if the rule took effect, universities could face hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and declining enrollment. “The damage to the higher education system and to the economy of the United States is likely to be catastrophic,” he wrote.
DHS general counsel James Percival criticized the ruling, saying it forces Immigration and Customs Enforcement to permit “rampant abuse” of the system. He argued that students could take minimal classes and remain in the U.S. for decades.
Miriam Feldblum, head of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, welcomed the decision. She said the ruling recognized the harm the rule would cause to international students, universities and the economy. “This relief preserves the longstanding system that enables our colleges and universities – and our country – to attract, educate, and retain global talent,” she said.