• IMMIGRATIONTrump’s New Immigration Ban: An Arbitrary, Discriminatory Legal Immigration Rewrite

    By David J. Bier

    President Trump claims he wants a “merit-based” immigration system, but a system banning people based on their nationality is the opposite of merit-based. It is a national embarrassment.

  • IMMIGRATIONHow Canadian Immigration Law Turns Judges into Border Guards

    What happens to you if you get into an argument, it escalates, and you end up hitting someone with an umbrella or pulling their hair? In Canada, if you’re not a Canadian citizen, the consequences can be dramatic: you may be deported.

  • TECH WORKER SHORTAGEDebate Over H-1B Visas Shines Spotlight on U.S. Tech Worker Shortages

    By Moshe Y. Vardi

    The debate over H-1B overlooks some important questions: Why does the U.S. rely so heavily on foreign workers for the tech industry, and why is it not able to develop a homegrown tech workforce?

  • CHINA WATCHBill Introduced to Ban Student Visas to Chinese Nationals

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, R-WV, filed a bill on Friday to ban Chinese nationals from receiving student visas. “Every year we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese nationals to come to the U.S. on student visas. We’ve literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security,” he said.

  • SCIENTISTSReports: Russian Physicists Being Denied Entry to U.S.

    By Daniil Sotnikov

    After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the US government attempted to make it easier for Russian scientists to enter the United States. But there are reports that it has actually become more difficult.

  • VisasForeign Students Look Forward to Visa Stability

    By Madeline Joung

    International students in the U.S. whose studies and immigration status have undergone changes during President Donald Trump’s administration say they hope their stays will stabilize with President-elect Joe Biden.

  • CompetitivenessProposed Student Visa Policy Could Hinder U.S. Competitiveness

    By David L. Di Maria

    In an effort to crack down on international students and scholars who overstay their visas, the administration is seeking to implement a new set of rules that would make it more difficult for them to remain in the U.S. One of the rules requires foreign students to leave the United States after two or four years, regardless of whether they have completed they degree or research work. The rule comes with a steep price tag. It would also undermine America’s interest in attracting talent from abroad and, ironically, it would do little to actually curtail the problem of visa overstays that it purports to solve.

  • China syndromeU.S. Revokes Visas of 1,000 Chinese Students Considered “High Risk”

    The U.S. says it has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese citizens considered “high risk” to U.S. security because of alleged ties with the Chinese military. The Trump administration has charged that Chinese students have come to the United States to steal intellectual property to advance China’s economic and military sectors.  

  • Visas & the economyVisa Ban Strikes Another Blow at Cross-Border Labor Flows

    By Rob Garver

    President Donald Trump’s executive order this week to extend and expand a ban on issuing visas to certain classes of foreign workers — ostensibly to preserve 525,000 jobs for hard-pressed American workers — was celebrated by advocates of decreased immigration. But business leaders and economists worry that in addition to doing short-term damage to some sectors of the U.S. economy, it could also make talented professionals from overseas less willing to relocate to the United States in the future. 

  • Visa restrictions & the economyNew Visa Restrictions Will Make U.S. Economic Downturn Worse

    The Trump administration is expected to set limits on a popular program — the Optional Practical Training (OPT) — which allows international students to work in the U.S. after graduation while remaining on their student visas. The administration says the aim is to help American graduates seeking jobs during the pandemic-fueled economic downturn. Economists, however, argue that immigrant rights enhance the lives and livelihoods of native-born workers in many ways.

  • PerspectivePresident Trump Bars Uninsured Immigrants from the U.S.

    On Oct. 4, President Trump issued a proclamation that bars otherwise qualified visa applicants from entry into the United States unless they are likely to obtain “approved health insurance” within 30 days of entry. The insurance test relies on 8 U.S.C.§ 1182(f), authorizing the president to bar entry of foreign nationals “detrimental to the interests of the United States”—the same provision that Trump used for his travel ban, which the Supreme Court upheld in Trump v. Hawaii. While the Supreme Court in Hawaii relied on the national security and foreign affairs rationale for the travel ban, the insurance test targets the very different issue of immigrants’ financial resources.

  • VisasForeign-Born PhDs Deterred from Working in Startups Because of Visa Concerns

    Foreign-born Ph.D. graduates with science and engineering degrees from American universities apply to and receive offers for technology startup jobs at the same rate as U.S. citizens, but are only half as likely to actually work at fledgling companies, a study finds.

  • Visas & social mediaNew U.S. visa rules may push foreigners to censor their social-media posts

    By Todd Prince

    Foreigners who decry American imperialism while seeking to relax on Miami’s sandy beaches or play poker at Las Vegas’s casinos may seek to soften their tone on Twitter. The reason? The U.S. State Department is now demanding visa applicants provide their social-media profiles on nearly two dozen platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

  • VisasAfrican asylum-seekers may bear brunt of proposed travel curbs

    As the White House mulls new travel restrictions on countries with high visa overstay rates, activists say African asylum-seekers may feel the consequences.

  • Skilled-work visasReform of U.S. skilled-worker visa program wins praise

    The Trump administration’s new rules for a U.S. visa program widely used for technology workers are getting cautious praise from Silicon Valley amid surging demand for high-skill employees. The H-1B visa program, which admits 85,000 foreign nationals each year, will give higher priority to people with postgraduate degrees from U.S. universities, under a final rule the Department of Homeland Security published in January.