Limit Student Visas

Recent events—including, among other things, President Trump’s attempt to ban Harvard University from enrolling international students and the online backlash against Elon Musk for defending visa policies that allow college-educated foreign nationals to seek employment—have brought to light troubling developments in higher education that have hitherto eluded the public eye.

In a recent piece for The American Mind, I argued that those who support hosting large numbers of international students invariably appeal to either multiculturalism or the pecuniary interests of big businesses and college administrators. Neither perspective recognizes America as a nation deserving of cultural and economic sovereignty.

Those who support hosting large numbers of international students invariably appeal to either multiculturalism or the interests of big businesses. On one end, progressive ideologues stress the need for “global citizens.” They see the 1.1 million international students in the U.S., most of whom hail from non-Western countries, as another ingredient to spice up the diversity, equity, and inclusion stew. The 2025 commencement speech by Harvard graduate Yurong Jiang is a prime specimen of this multiculturalist dogma. Jiang, donning an elaborate costume that evoked China’s imperial past, recalled how she and “77 classmates from 34 countries” in her program “danced through each other’s traditions.” Ironically, proponents of this worldview mock Americans who cling to the belief that their own nation’s most prestigious colleges should maintain distinctly American and otherwise Western traditions.

The establishment would not have acted the way it has were it not for international students themselves overwhelmingly wishing to immigrate. On the other end, elites profit handsomely from international students. Because they pay out-of-state tuition and are mostly disqualified from financial aid, international students are a lifeline to colleges amid declines in domestic enrollment. Moreover, a sizable minority of foreign college graduates are employed through the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program or the H-1B visa for jobs requiring at least a bachelor’s degree. (The latter is often used to buy time for a sponsorship for permanent residency.) A recent report by the Heritage Foundation noted that international-students-turned-employees are underpaid. Since their visa status is tied to their employer, they are unlikely to demand higher pay, much less quit an unsatisfying job, if the alternative is to return to the heat, pollution, and impoverishment of Mumbai or New Delhi. One academic journal compared international students to “indentured servants.” Their woes are surpassed only by American workers who are priced out of the job market entirely by cheaper and more compliant substitutes.

Yet, the educational and business establishments would not have acted the way they have were it not for international students themselves overwhelmingly wishing to immigrate. A 2021 study found that 73 percent of prospective international students said they would remain in the U.S. if allowed to. Those who chose to study in Australia or Canada instead justified their decision by citing those countries’ more relaxed immigration policies. Similar patterns exist in Europe, as well. A 2025 study of over 20,000 international students from around 130 universities in Germany found that two-thirds planned to remain after graduation.

In other words, most international students are being less than candid about their intentions when they apply for student visas, which, under U.S. federal law, are for “an alien having a residence in a foreign country which he has no intention of abandoning … and who seeks to enter the United States temporarily and solely for the purpose of pursuing such a course of study.”

Colleges have known all along that international students possess immigrant intent. The National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA), a lobby group for academic exchange programs, calls for “expanding dual intent so that international students no longer have to prove they have no interest in working in the United States after graduation in order to receive a student visa and creating a pathway to a green card for international student graduates of a U.S. higher education institution.” The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a network of 580 college presidents and chancellors, supports similar policies. If, as journalist Christopher Caldwell writes, “A guest worker program can easily wind up being an immigration program that dare not speak its name,” so can an educational program.

There is no realistic way to separate genuine non-immigrant students from students who attend college as a means to gain permanent residency. Even if consulates could read the minds of every student-visa applicant and reject those with immigrant intent, a student who arrives in the U.S. with no desire to remain can always change his mind once he experiences life here. Short of abolishing student visas entirely, we cannot alter the fact that many international students will inevitably become permanent residents and eventually citizens if given enough time. Since international students are thus often de facto immigrants, they should be treated like actual immigrants.

One can sympathize with foreigners’ desires to build a better life and still understand that America can no longer remain a cohesive nation if it lets in the entire world’s population all at once. Consequently, most immigrant visas—with the notable exception of visas for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens—are subject to an annual numerical cap established by Congress. So should student visas be. I suggest a quota of 100,000 per year:

Foreign students [would be] free to apply for college, but their admission would be tentative until they are selected through a lottery similar to that currently used for the H-1B visa, assuming the number of applicants exceeds the quota. The randomness of the lottery would deter many from applying, so the quota might not even fill up. For the few who still prefer to try their luck, we can presume they have immigrant intent, for no rational person would put himself through this much uncertainty just to attend college.

Those in the selected cohort who complete their studies, secure employment within 60 days of graduating, and work for five years while being paid at least the prevailing wage for their profession could earn permanent residency. The quota system would gradually replace all other guest-worker programs for mid-to-entry-level jobs requiring college degrees, such as the H-1B visa and the EB-2 and EB-3 green cards. The entire white-collar immigrant workforce would thus be kept at no more than 100,000 in any given year.

While existing visa quotas protect Americans from foreign competition to an extent, a student-visa quota would do something extra. While existing visa quotas protect Americans from foreign competition to an extent, a student-visa quota would do something extra. It would close the gap between the number of international students and that of available employment-based visas and green cards. The U.S. admitted nearly 300,000 new international students between 2023 and 2024. A total of about 250,000 international students in bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs graduate each year. H-1B visas, meanwhile, are capped at a mere 85,000 per year, although a few more are given to employees of colleges and research nonprofits. Employment-based green cards are capped at 140,000 per year. Even if all of these perks were reserved for international graduates, which is impossible because there are other immigrants with job offers, many would still have to go home. Creating more visas and green cards, as Democrats have suggested, would not solve this problem because it would likely encourage even more people to apply.

The harsh reality is already common knowledge outside of the U.S. In India, which sends the most international students of any country, news outlets regularly churn out sob stories on the scarcity of H-1B visas. Indians desperate for a visa have resorted to performing elaborate rituals at Hindu temples. The current U.S. practice of issuing limited H-1B visas through a lottery inspires the dream that paying exorbitant prices for a U.S. degree will buy a chance, however slim, to work and immigrate. Issuing a more limited number of student visas through a lottery would spare the unselected from what is often an expensive nightmare.

Finally, the 100,000 selected students who would be given free rein to work—to rise and fall in America based on merit alone, unburdened by visa restrictions—would be eternally grateful to whichever party manages to pass such a quota into law. Becoming citizens one day, they would cast their votes accordingly. Republicans had better seize the opportunity.

Guzi He is a graduate of the American University Washington College of Law. He is a former legal fellow at Americans United for Life. His writings have been featured in The Federalist, American Reformer, Chronicles Magazine, and the Regent University Law Review.