A change in tone from his previous administration’s policies became apparent when President Donald Trump declared from the Oval Office that it is an “honour” to welcome international students to the United States.
Trump went on to say that although the United States welcomes international students, “we want them to be checked,” alluding to recent restrictions on Chinese students’ visas.
Trump Calls Hosting Foreign Students an ‘Honour’ Amid Policy Reversals
“It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools,” Trump said in a June 2024 campaign podcast, expressing support for automatically issuing green cards to foreign graduates from prestigious U.S. universities.
Trump’s administration has implemented restrictive measures against international students since taking office again, including stopping visa interviews and preventing student admissions, in spite of that pledge.
Nearly all foreign nationals were prohibited from attending Harvard by a proclamation signed on Wednesday; a federal judge blocked it the following day, but confusion persists.
Trump proposed capping admissions of international students at 15% last month.
According to Indian education consultants, students still want to study in the United States despite the political unpredictability.
Leverage Edu CEO Akshay Chaturvedi urged students to focus on their studies and not let policy changes divert them, claiming that each nation has its own priorities.
Indian Students Vital to Academic and Financial Health of U.S. Public Universities
Indian students are essential to the academic and financial viability of many public universities in the United States, according to Rahul Subramaniam of Athena Education. He believes that the current unrest is only temporary.
Proposals like awarding green cards to exceptional graduates, according to Subramaniam, demonstrate that the American system is still making an attempt to retain foreign talent.
Career Mosaic’s Abhijit Zaveri explained that deportation headlines typically do not refer to law-abiding F-1 visa holders, but rather to visa violations like illegal entry, unauthorized work, or political protests.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data, India accounted for nearly 27% of all international students in 2024, making it the country’s largest source of foreign students.
However, the number of active international student records decreased by 11.3%, from 1.153 million to 1.022 million, between March 2024 and March 2025.
During that time, the number of Indian students fell by 28%, from 354,295 to 255,442.
A number of factors, including affordability, visa delays, and more favorable permanent residency pathways in other nations, were cited by Boston College professor Chris R. Glass as the causes of the decline in the number of Indian students.
Glass pointed out that while bachelor’s degree enrollments stayed constant, the drop is consistent with a larger 20.5% drop in international master’s degree enrollments.
He underlined the value of foreign graduate students in the United States, contending that they contribute significantly to the country’s scientific infrastructure and are more than just supplemental income.
Additionally, Glass hypothesized that the decline may be exacerbated by reports of Indian students being mistreated.
