Would Trump’s Immigration Policies Scare Away International Students bound for USA?

Without any doubt, the thumping victory Donald Trump secured in the recent US presidential election was a shocking and an appalling news for many who live in and out of the US, especially for international students and job seekers with Big American dreams!

The question on everyone’s mind now is what would this victory mean to those dreams? Well, it is certain that one can expect sweeping changes in issues such as Immigration, education though the extent these changes affect their dreams is still uncertain.

The effect is clear, as universities in other countries have been observing a heavy rush in international applications; for example Canadian universities websites have been experiencing heavy traffic from international students. Similar trends were also experienced by universities in other English speaking countries such as the Britain and Australia.

Immigrants afraid that Trump would radically change Immigration rules-Trump, during his election campaigning repeatedly announced that he would take steps to control immigration by ensuring strict implementation of immigration laws, frame immigration laws that help increase employment opportunities to American citizens.

Some of these laws include ending sanctuary cities, where the local law enforcement authorities are not required to report any breach of immigration laws by immigrants to the federal authorities.  Some universities will come under scrutiny where illegal immigrants are enrolled.

Now Election is Over. Would Trump proceed to detain and Deport undocumented Immigrants? Trump also intends to detain close to 11 million undocumented illegal immigrants, immigrants convicted of even minor felony. In addition to reforming the J-1 Visa, and the H-1 visa program to make it more favorable to the American citizens; making the F1 international student visa a difficult one, especially for applicants from terror prone regions and countries that have been sending huge number of students to the US such as China and India.

Further, he also plans to end the Obama administration’s protective cover offered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to the children of illegal immigrants, enrolled in schools and colleges across the US.

Trump’s strong views against Muslims may scare away potential International Students from these countries-Speculations are rife that his strong opinions on banning Muslims from entering the US and making immigration laws to favor Americans might deter many international students from applying at the US universities.

Immigration advocates fear that a post 9/11 kind of scenario might arise, with many international students may choose on their own not to apply for the US universities for the fear of Visa rejections or because they do not like the anti-immigration policies that the Trump administration might put in place.

However, many dreamers believe that Mr.Trump, if intends to implement such policies will have to do so within the purview of the legal system and offer the immigrants a fair chance of being heard, which would require more time and hiring legal professionals including judges.

It remains to be seen how the Trump administration can tackle these issues while facing heavy criticism from all sections of the society as the state and local authorities have openly defied these policies and announced that they would not co-operate to any such moves. While many universities have offered any possible help to protect the interests of their international students.

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Mary Moksha

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