Trump’s New Executive Orders Against Academic Institutions: The Impact on American Economy and Freedom of Education
- Endangered Scholars Worldwide
- 1 minute ago
- 2 min read
On August 28, 2025, The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced new federal regulations impacting conditions of stay for F and J visa holders which have serious consequences for foreign students. The Trump administration’s new proposed regulation will limit the length of time that foreign students, professors, and other F and J visa holders are allowed to stay in the United States without additional screening. Restricting the length of time for visa holders would facilitate the process of monitoring foreign students’ records and curtail “abuse”, according to the administration.
“For too long, past Administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the U.S. virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amounts of taxpayer dollars, and disadvantageous U.S. citizens,” said a DHS spokesperson.
More recently the Trump administration has tightened its restrictions on international students. In a new statement issued on August 29, 2025 titled, “Fraud and Abuse of International Student Visas, international students can no longer exist in the U.S. once they finish their academic programs unless they qualify for exceptions like OPT or an H1B visa, the rules of which have been changed. Clarifying the new rules, the Trump administration stated that each H1B visa application would require a $100,000 fee.
The DHS said this new rule will take effect following the mandatory 60-day public mandatory input period.
Having been commanded by Trump to implement his executive orders, The DHS has deployed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) forces to target “illegal aliens” in the country through mass campaigns of arrests and deportations that have resulted in the separation of families and the detention and deportation of US citizens.
As a result, specific types of visas for specific nations — Palestine among them —- have been targeted.
On January the 30th, a fact sheet published on the official website of the White House claimed that President Trump has implemented his executive orders as an effective response to eradicate violence around the US and its universities resulting from acts which he described as “antisemitic.”
Restrictions on the status of international students will likely impact not just students but also the American society and economy more widely. According to a 2024 report by the Institute of International Education (IIE), there are 1.1 million international students at American higher education institutes. More importantly, The National Association for Foreign Students Advisors (NAFSA) in cooperation with JB International issued new data that provide clear evidence on the pivotal contribution of international students to the flourishing of the American economy during 2023-2024. The data indicates that “1.1 million international students at U.S. colleges and universities contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy during that academic year and supported more than 378,000 jobs.”
Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) vehemently denounces the repetitive attacks against academic freedom by the Trump administration, and we urgently ask the international community to join our call to end these attacks that pose risk to the freedom of expression.
