Ruiyan Wang, Contributing Photographer
The results of the 2024 presidential election could affect student visas, either opening or restricting pathways to H-1B temporary work visas and green cards, directly impacting Yale’s international community.
Recently, former President Donald Trump promised to give green cards to all international college students post-graduation. However, he has a record of tightening restrictions on legal immigration during his past administration. Vice President Kamala Harris would likely continue President Joe Biden’s policies toward international students, which opened up pathways to stay in the U.S.
The News spoke with international students and experts about how the results could affect pathways to working in the U.S. Students expressed a range of opinions, from thoughts that neither candidate will change the landscape to fear that Trump might narrow avenues for working in America.
“No matter what happens, our mission is to support our students and scholars, provide the best immigration advice we can, so we’ll continue doing that,” said Ozan Say, the director of the Office of International Students and Scholars at Yale.
What immigration policies could affect international students?
Policies surrounding student visas and the duration of stay after graduating have been a topic of discussion for Yale’s international community this election.
David Hopkins, a political science professor at Boston College, highlighted that changes to the experiences of international students could occur without specific legislation or executive orders. He said that presidents can affect how long it takes for visa applications to get processed by allocating funding and personnel to different agencies.
“I have heard people say how during Trump, the rate at which family immigration petitions and H-1B visas were processed became slower … there was more of a backlog,” said Tajrian Khan ’27, who is from Bangladesh.
Despite campaign promises of more green cards in 2016, Trump’s administration made legal immigration more difficult, specifically through restricting visas. The first year of his presidency saw an increase in denials of H-1B visas.
Khan said Trump’s promises of increasing access to green cards this year feel like a “political ploy” rather than a policy proposal.
“I don’t think that’s anything serious,” he said. “He was just trying to get people of color and immigrants to have a more positive [opinion] … he wasn’t saying it for [the] benefit of actual students.”
Hopkins added that Trump’s comment was aimed at the business wing of the Republican coalition that supports legal immigration. However, he noted that the behavior of Trump’s past administration gives reason to believe that the second Trump administration would not follow these promises.
Another area of immigration policy that might come under fire in a second Trump administration is the Optional Practical Training provision of F-1 visas, or OPTs. OPTs are offered immediately after international students graduate, allowing students to stay in the U.S. for up to three years while searching for work. OPTs are frequently seen as a step towards obtaining H1-B work visas.
At the end of Trump’s past administration, Politico reported that the administration considered restricting OPTs during his final days in office.
Khan highlighted that further limiting OPTs would take a toll on international students, as “it’s already restricting enough.”
One area of legal immigration that has seen restrictions under both the Trump and Biden administrations relates to immigration from China.
On May 29, 2020, Trump signed the “Suspension of Entry as Nonimmigrants of Certain Students and Researchers from the People’s Republic of China.”
This presidential proclamation denies entry by any Chinese citizens through an F or J visa, which are respectively for full-time academic studies and exchange programs, in the case that they are connected to China’s “military-civil fusion strategy.” The Biden administration notably did not overturn this proclamation.
“We had a few denials based on that proclamation,” Say said, “but that’s not just unique to the Trump administration.”
Hopkins noted that while the Trump administration would have an “especially” suspicious attitude towards China, the U.S. government exhibits concerns against Chinese immigration regardless of the party in power.
He added that an incoming Trump administration could be more aggressive with all policies, including limiting visas and legal immigration, adding that there is no reelection campaign to worry about and this could be Trump’s “last shot.”
Past policies under Trump
According to Say, Trump’s first administration used a playbook of five D’s to guide their immigration policy: delay, defer, discourage, deny and deport. Following trends of Trump’s first administration, Say said he expects Trump, in the absence of a Republican Congress, to use executive orders to enforce immigration policies in a possible second administration.
Major immigration actions taken by the Trump administration included travel bans, increased deportations, deployment of the military to the border, the construction of an extended “border wall,” adding asylum restrictions and lowering refugee admissions.
While a lot of these changes did not impact Yale students, Say said, Executive Order 13769, also known as the “Muslim Ban,” led to a notable absence of Iranian students on campus.
The order, which was in effect from Jan. 27, 2017, to March 6, 2017, blocked the entry of people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for at least 90 days.
“There was a period where we didn’t have any Iranian students or scholars except for the ones who were already here,” Say said.
Some Yale affiliates from majority-Muslim countries worry about the return of this travel ban.
Tamrin Chowdhury, a post-doctoral candidate from Bangladesh at the School of Medicine, said she feels anxious about a second Trump administration. Although Bangladesh was not included in the initial travel ban, the country is majority Muslim.
“None of us wants to get a travel ban,” she said. “If one of my parents were sick and I had a travel ban, these types of things have anxiety … I hope this will not be that extreme.”
Additionally, according to Say, when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, staff were sent to the Southern border instead of adjudicating visa petitions, some visa issuances to Yale students slowed.
After the beginning of COVID-19, the administration imposed various additional travel restrictions and used public health laws at the border to expel migrants quickly without processing.
On July 6, 2020, Immigration and Customs Enforcement — ICE — announced that “[nonimmigrant] F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States” and that the State Department would not issue visas to students who are enrolled in fully online schools.
The following day, Say woke up to 300 emails from surprised students and scholars. While the guidance was rescinded on July 16 following pleadings from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Say said experiences like this allowed him to prepare for a second Trump administration.
“We don’t get an advanced warning. These are like an earthquake, right?” he said. “But we are more prepared in the sense that we do now expect these kinds of things can happen.”
Students express concerns, seek University support
On Oct. 24, OISS hosted a discussion on providing student support regarding immigration policy and the 2024 election, highlighting different policies under Trump and Biden.
At the end of the talk, Say noted that the OISS’s support goes beyond the specifics of visas and that the office will be there for support “no matter who wins.”
Lily Lin ’27, a sophomore from Beijing, China, noted that this election feels “very different” from Trump’s past campaigns. She drew specific attention to tense U.S.-China relations during COVID-19, during which there was difficulty in getting visas.
Khan added that a Harris administration would make it easier for students to stay in the U.S. and work post-graduation.
“Having the Democratic party in power will, in the long term, have a better impact on immigrants coming into the country legally,” he said.
However, Vicky Cantú ’28, an international student from Mexico, does not believe a new president will make any changes to immigration policy that will feel meaningful to her, saying that both administrations do not respect the human rights of migrants.
Chowdhury hopes for a smoother and quicker visa application process under Harris. Under Trump, she fears she will not be able to remain in the U.S. with a job in academia or in the industry.
“If I cannot transition here, then I might have to move,” she said.
According to Say, immigration has become more of a hot-button issue over the past decade, and discussions about illegal immigration have affected the perception of all immigrants, regardless of whether or not they are here through legal means.
“Overall, Yale is very supportive to the students and scholars,” Chowdhury said. “Maybe there will not be very drastic outcomes with a Harris or Trump administration, but I feel like they will be supportive throughout.”
She added that the OISS has helped with planning her career, clearing visa pathways, applying for waivers, and more.
The Office of International Students and Scholars is located at 421 Temple St.
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