The Trump government continues its austere political against foreigners, and students are not saved. According to the information collected by Politico, the US government plans to strengthen the controls of foreign students, coming to study in American universities.
These future measures plan to inspect the social networks of foreign students. This possible reinforcement forces US embassies to temporarily stop visa application procedures.
A strengthening in a tense context
The directive currently does not specify the criteria in social networks that could hinder a visa application. In view of recent tensions in the United States, one of the advanced hypotheses is that the Trump administration seeks to prohibit access to students who have published pro-palestinian content. The mission will be entrusted to embassies that will have to examine social networks for each visa application.
“From now on, in anticipation of the extension of the verification and examination of social networks, the consular sections should not add quotes for visas of students or visitors in return until new directives are issued, which we plan in the next few days,” said the document that Politic has been obtained.
The reduction of foreign students could greatly affect US universities at the financial level. There are more than 1.1 million foreign students in the country for the 2023/2024 school year according to OpenDoo figures.
This new measurement is part of a context of confrontation between Donald Trump and Harvard University, the most famous in the country. Therefore, the US president wishes to prevent the university from accompanying foreign students, particularly Chinese students. In recent days, the US government has been very hostile with Harvard calling it “threat to democracy” and wishing to deprive it of subsidies.
For his part, the Minister of Higher Education of France, Philippe Baptiste, wishes to initiate “retirement solutions” for French students who would study in the United States at the beginning of the school year but did not obtain a visa after these measures.
Source: BFM TV
