Trump makes academia face the damning truth about foreign students
That's what President Donald Trump is asking as he takes action against Harvard University and its large international-student population.
His effort to restrict Harvard's foreign-student visas seeks to address a growing problem in higher education: Many of our most renowned graduate schools are overwhelmingly non-American.
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On Wednesday, Columbia University capitulated on the issue — agreeing in its deal with Trump to 'take steps to decrease financial dependence on international student enrollment.'
The Ivy also promised to probe 'international student-applicants [on] their reasons for wishing to study in the United States' — in other words, to keep out the sneaky saboteurs coming here to wreak havoc.
Significantly, Columbia's decision signals to other top-tier schools, Harvard in particular, that it's not worth fighting the administration over international-graduate-student enrollment.
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And that is welcome news indeed.
We support international educational exchange, as most Americans do.
The problem is disproportionality: A huge influx of foreign students has changed the character of traditionally American institutions, leaving American students increasingly crowded out — and even making them targets of prejudice and discrimination.
The numbers speak for themselves.
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During the 2023-2024 academic year, the United States hosted 1.1 million international students, a sharp 7% increase from the year prior.
Nearly half of them, 500,000-plus, were graduate students.
International grad-school enrollments grew by 10.2% between 2021 and 2022, as American enrollments dropped by 4.7%.
Some fields, mostly STEM-related, have seen a 100% international-student enrollment boom since the COVID-19 pandemic.
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President Donald Trump listens during a briefing with the media, Friday, June 27, 2025, at the White House in Washington.
AP
At Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, for example, the percentage of international students rose from 56% in 2023 to 59% in 2024.
At Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Columbia and others, international students make up 48% or more of the graduate-student body. At MIT, it's 42%.
As the foreign graduate population soared, so too did antisemitism and anti-Americanism on college campuses.
Coincidence?
We don't think so.
One analysis found that once the international-student population surpasses 13% at a university, campus protests double.
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Any reasonable observer of the post-Oct. 7 campus troubles must notice the heavy involvement of foreign graduate students like Mahmoud Khalil, who reportedly helped organize a campaign of intimidation at Columbia.
Rather than trying to address the problem, schools like Harvard are fighting federal subpoenas seeking foreign students' disciplinary records — while simultaneously claiming the government has no proof their foreign students are a problem.
Only intense pressure from Trump forced Columbia to confront the truth.
But the problem is not just campus culture — there's strong evidence that international enrollment is shutting American students, particularly minorities, out of opportunities.
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Harvard's Kennedy School saw a 50% drop in 'black or African American' enrollment in 2023 compared to 2021, while international enrollment rose.
In addition, multiple scholarship opportunities at publicly funded colleges are open only to illegal-immigrant students, excluding those who are American-born.
Demonstrators join the group Crimson Courage, who gathered to support Harvard University during a hearing before a federal judge at the federal courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., July 21, 2025.
REUTERS
Our Equal Protection Project has filed legal challenges to such programs at five schools (so far — there are many more), prompting the US Department of Education to open investigations into our cases.
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And there's a hidden long-term cost to these disproportionate numbers of foreign students in America's graduate programs: brain drain.
Most of the international students who gain higher-level degrees in American programs take their education and skills back to their home countries — talent and training lost to us domestically, because those spots could and should have been filled by Americans.
Only about 30% of all international graduate students eventually seek green cards and legal permanent US residency.
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And there's some evidence that those who do join the US workforce after graduation undercut their job-seeking American classmates — because employers can sponsor them for H-1B visas and hire them on the cheap.
Most international students come here for good reasons, but their disproportionate representation has undeniably created negative consequences.
Trump's effort to force schools to address the problem is a step in the right direction — and the Columbia deal shows academia that ignoring it is no longer an option.
We love international students.
But we also love the American character of our American universities — and don't want to see that lost.
William A. Jacobson is a clinical professor of law at Cornell University and founder of the Equal Protection Project and CriticalRace.org, where Kemberlee Kaye is operations and editorial director.
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Essayli has stressed making examples out of those protesting Trump's immigration raids, two prosecutors said, insisting on filing charges even in cases in which the evidence is unlikely to secure a conviction. The office has filed roughly 40 felony cases against protesters and people who have allegedly interfered with ICE operations, but only seven have netted indictments, court records show. Some have been dismissed or reduced to misdemeanors. Law enforcement sources said several were rejected by grand juries, which is rare. Some in Essayli's office have taken to calling him 'No Bill' Essayli, a reference to the legal term for a grand jury refusing to return a criminal charge — or a 'bill' — in response to a prosecutor's request, according to three federal law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. One prosecutor said work under Essayli has been filled with threats of termination and screaming matches over cases, leading to 'very low' morale. 'When he's in the office, I feel like I usually find out about it because he's yelling at someone,' the prosecutor said. Essayli's office declined to provide The Times with the number of career prosecutors who have left the office recently. According to two law enforcement sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, Essayli said at a recent meeting that roughly 80 prosecutors out of fewer than 300 have left since early January. 'It feels like we have a going away party pretty much every week,' one prosecutor said. 'Most people that I'm familiar with are looking for other jobs.' Some see Essayli's influence spreading to the national level if he is appointed to the role permanently — and they welcome it. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is a Republican who is running for governor and knows Essayli well. He said he has been in law enforcement for more than 30 years and has never had a more cooperative partner in the local U.S. attorney's office than Essayli. 'We finally have someone that's willing to prosecute people that break the law,' Bianco said. 'Of course I want him confirmed.' That path, however, is far from certain. It's unclear whether the district's judges approve of Essayli or would appoint him, as some have expressed frustration in court with the office's tactics under his leadership. Essayli clearly has his doubts, alleging to Beck that liberal district judges in the country 'have basically signaled en masse they're not going to confirm any Trump U.S. attorneys.' A formal nomination from Trump likely wouldn't put Essayli in any better position. Under traditional Senate rules, California's two senators could scuttle any formal Trump nomination for U.S. attorney in the region by withholding what is known as their 'blue slip,' or acknowledgment of support for a nominee. Essayli told Beck there was 'no world in which' Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff agreed to his nomination. Both Padilla and Schiff in interviews with The Times declined to say whether they would oppose Essayli's appointment given that he has not been formally nominated. But both expressed strong concerns about how he has conducted himself to date. Schiff, who once worked as a prosecutor in the same office, said the U.S. attorneys he worked for under both Republican and Democratic administrations appropriately 'avoided getting involved in incendiary cultural wars or engaging in overt political activity or commentary.' Schiff said Essayli 'is a dramatic departure from that,' leaving him with 'profound concerns.' During a second 'Stop Essayli' town hall on Tuesday, Abi Jones, a 17-year-old transgender athlete from Riverside County, voiced her own fears. In a testimonial video, she said running track and cross-country in high school had taught her about resilience and helped her find a community. But she said that all changed after Essayli 'openly supported' a lawsuit challenging her participation in school sports. Abi accused Essayli of helping to launch a 'harassment campaign' against her and other transgender athletes, and of using it 'for social media content and cheap political points.' 'We need leaders who protect and support all youth,' she said, 'not target and isolate us.' When Daruvala first launched the 'Stop Essayli' effort, he said he felt as though he were 'shouting to the void' about the dangers Essayli posed, where 'only really the LGBTQ community from the Inland Empire who already knew him seemed to understand.' But that has changed with each new partisan move Essayli has made, especially his decision to charge Huerta, the SEIU president, Daruvala said. 'People woke up right away, like, 'Oh, this is not just a Trump puppet,'' Daruvala said. ''He is Trump's enforcer.''
