President Donald Trump proposed novel ideas during his campaign to attract the brightest minds of America. If elected, he will grant a green card to all foreign students who graduate from a US university.
“It’s so sad to lose Harvard people from MIT’s greatest school,” Trump said in a podcast interview last June. “It’ll end on the first day.”
That promise never passed. Trump’s attitude towards welcoming foreign students has changed dramatically. International students found themselves at the heart of an escalating campaign I’ll kick them out Or prevent them from coming as his administration is blending efforts with immigration crackdowns Reform higher education.
Avalanche of policies from the Trump administration – Finishing student abilities Stop everything to study in the US New Student Visa InterviewI’ll move Block foreigners registration Harvard has caused lawsuits, reversals and confusion for international students who say they feel they are targeted in multiple ways.
In an interview, students from around the world explained what they feel they are today as international students in America. Their explanations highlight the widespread feelings of fear, anxiety and anxiety that have made them more cautious in their daily lives, distracted them from their studies and encouraged many. Cancel travel house Because they are afraid they will not be allowed to come back.
For many, the last few months have been forced to rethink their dreams Building a life in America.
Latvian outstanding students feel it is “consumables”
Marks Saul, a freshman at Brigham Young University Idaho, recently returned to Latvia and returned the entire flight back to the US in panic.
For hours he scrubed his phone, uninstalled all social media, removed anything that could have been exposed to politics or been interpreted as anti-Trump.
“That whole 10-hour flight I was discussing, ‘Would they let me in?’ – it definitely killed me a bit,” said Saule, a business analytics major. “That was horrifying.”
Saule is the type of international student that the United States is craving. As a high school student in Latvia, he was qualified for a competitive merit-based exchange program funded by the US Department of State. He spent a year in Minnesota and fell in love with America and a classmate, his current fiance. He finished his college freshman year with a 4.0 GPA.
However, the alarm he felt in that flight crushed what remained in his American dreams.
“If I was asking what my plan was at the end of 2024, it was to get married, find a great job in the US here and start a family,” said Saule, who hopes to work as a business data analyst. “These plans won’t be applied anymore. Ask me now and plan to leave this place as soon as possible.”
Saule and his fiance will be married this summer, graduating a year earlier and moving to Europe.
The Trump administration took place this spring suddenly Revoked permission to study in the US Before thousands of international students were turned around. Federal judges have blocked further status termination, but it has caused damage to many. Saule has a constant fear that he could become next.
As a Minnesota student just three years ago, he felt like a proud ambassador of his country.
“Now I feel inferior. I feel like a consumable. I feel purely an appendage that may be blocked off immediately,” he said. There is a clear subtext to Trump’s policy. “Policy, it’s easy for them to say to me, that’s a word.
From dreaming of working for NASA to job listings for “Doomscrolling” in India
A Trump interview with the podcast All-In last June raised concerns about attracting top students around the world. Can Trump promised that he was asked to give businesses “the best and brightest” students to more abilities?
“I promise,” Trump replied. According to him, the Green Card will hand out diplomas to foreign students who have completed university or graduate degrees.
Trump said he knew the story of a “glorious” alumni who wanted to stay at work but couldn’t. “They’re going back to India and back to China,” employing thousands of people, turning into a billion-dollar mold. “It’ll end on the first day.”
If Trump had continued with that pledge, the 24-year-old Indian physics name AVI is not afraid to lose everything he has worked on.
Six years later in Arizona, where AVI attended university and now works as an engineer, the US feels like its second home. He dreams of working for NASA and the National Laboratory, and staying in America with several relatives.
But now he can see them because he’s so afraid to fly to Chicago, rattling over the news that foreigners are being harassed at immigration centres and airports.
“Are you at risk of seeing your family or risking deportation?” said Abhi, who asked to be identified by his name, fearing retaliation.
AVI is one of approximately 240,000 US student visas on optional practical training. Students are graduated for up to three years in areas related to their degree. The leading Trump candidate said he hopes to finish permits for graduate work for international students.
The AVI visa will remain valid until next year, but he feels “a great deal of uncertainty.”
He wonders if he can sign a lease in his new apartment. Even his daily commute feels different.
“I go to work every morning under a speed limit of 10 miles,” said Avi, who wants to stay in the US but throws a wider net. “I spend a lot of time blaming job listings in India and elsewhere.”
Ukrainians chose a university in the US and took part in the battle at home – for now
VladySlav Plyaka came to the US from Ukraine as a high school exchange student. When war broke out at home, he stayed to attend the University of Wisconsin.
He had planned to visit Poland to meet his mother, but if he leaves the US he will have to reapply for a visa. He doesn’t know when this is possible now that visa appointments have been suspended. It’s not safe to leave the country anyway.
He appreciates his education, but without renewing his visa, he will be stuck in the US for at least two years while he is earning his degree. He sometimes wonders if he thinks if something happens to his family there is a risk that he will leave his education in the United States.
“If everything’s fine, that’s difficult because I have to think about my family every day,” he said.
Visa issues took him three attempts to win three scholarships to study that scholarship, in order to undermine the sacrifices he made to be here. He sometimes feels guilty about not being in a home fighting for his country, but he knows there is value in getting an education in America.
“I decided to stay here simply because of how good my university education is,” he said. “If that wasn’t good, I’d probably be on the front line.”
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AP Education Writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
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