The United States Vice President, JD Vance, has stated that foreign students on student visas could face deportation if their presence is deemed not to be in the country’s best interest. Speaking in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Vance explained that this measure aligns with the Trump administration’s broader strategy to ramp up deportation efforts.
He clarified that while some may frame the issue as a free speech matter, it is fundamentally about national security and controlling who becomes part of the American community. According to Vance, both the President and the Secretary of State have the authority to determine whether a foreign student should remain in the U.S., and if found without legal grounds to stay, they would be subject to deportation.Vance stated, “This is not fundamentally about free speech, and to me, yes, it’s about national security, but it’s also more importantly about who do we as an American public decide gets to join our national community. “And if the secretary of state and the president decide this person shouldn’t be in America, and they have no legal right to stay here, it’s as simple as that.
“I think we’ll certainly see some people who get deported on student visas if we determine that it’s not in the best interest of the United States to have them in our country. Vance acknowledged that deportations could rise but did not specify how many students might be affected. He also raised concerns about foreign students occupying seats in prestigious universities that could have been available to qualified American students.
He specifically pointed out that wealthy international students, particularly from countries like China, often gain admission to elite institutions, limiting opportunities for middle-class, native-born Americans. “A lot of these foreign students, most of them, pay full freight. So sometimes what have you at elite universities like a Columbia or Harvard, you have a well-qualified middle-class American kid from the heartland who doesn’t get a spot in these universities because some Chinese oligarch, who is paying $100,000 a year, takes up that spot,” he said.
“So it’s not just bad for national security, it’s bad for the American dream for a lot of kids who want to go to a nice university and can’t because their spot was taken by a foreign student. It’s certainly something we are looking at,” the VP noted. This discussion on foreign students comes amid a rise in international enrollments in the U.S., particularly from Nigeria, which saw a record increase in 2023. As of the 2023/2024 academic session, Nigeria ranked as the seventh-largest source of international students in the country, with 20,029 Nigerian students enrolled.
Vance acknowledged that deportations could rise but did not specify how many students might be affected. He also raised concerns about foreign students occupying seats in prestigious universities that could have been available to qualified American students. He specifically pointed out that wealthy international students, particularly from countries like China, often gain admission to elite institutions, limiting opportunities for middle-class, native-born Americans.
This discussion on foreign students comes amid a rise in international enrollments in the U.S., particularly from Nigeria, which saw a record increase in 2023. As of the 2023/2024 academic session, Nigeria ranked as the seventh-largest source of international students in the country, with 20,029 Nigerian students enrolled.
Source : https://punchng.com/
