If Trump strips international student visas, these states will lose hundreds of millions of dollars
The Trump administration’s decision to strip visas from international college students whose schools will be online-only in the fall could put the status of more than 1 million students at risk and disproportionately affect several large states.
California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Florida would be most affected by the policy, which would force students on F-1 or M-1 visas to either depart the country or transfer to a school with in-person instruction.
The seven states, which are among those with the most four-year colleges, had approximately half the international college student enrollment in the 2018-19 school year, according to data from the nonprofit NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
Overall, international students contributed $41 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018-19, according to NAFSA.
Two schools in Massachusetts — Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Wednesday seeking a restraining order against the policy and declaring it unlawful.
