This would be a massive reversal from Trump’s policies so far, which have threatened international students’ ability to enter the country and jeopardized the admissions of many top institutions — and it also contradicts his prior moves to revoke visas for Chinese students. But the new pledge, which was backed up by Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, provoked instant fury from the MAGA world.
Even the math isn’t valid unless you can show that all 600,000 of those students will remain in the US illegally when their visas expire. Not a single one of them going back to China, taking their degree to another english speaking country, or obtaining a work visa in the US - that’s not realistic.
The real number was estimated at 3.67% in 2023, so 22,020 new undocumented immigrants per year from this versus 365,000 planned deportations. Not even the math checks out.