What is the endgame for current attack on elite unis + international students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to see how arbitrary the deportations of foreign students in this country can be, read this story of a PhD student from Japan who goes to BYU. His student visa was revoked due to a fishing license violation, which was dismissed by a judge. The student is a Mormon to boot, not a group exactly known for political rabble rousing or poor behavior.

“[His lawyer] told the Deseret News that his client went on a 2019 fishing activity with his Latter-day Saint ward. “He didn’t catch a fish — but because he was the organizer or the face of the activity, (Onda) was cited for harvesting more than their license permitted.”
Onda went to court, the attorney added, “but the prosecutor was like, ‘Yeah, we’re dismissing this’ — and it was dismissed.

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2025/04/16/byu-grad-student-has-student-visa-revoked/

When I travel to foreign countries I obey ALL laws, even the ones I don't agree with. Foreigners here should do the same or not come. I won't even spit on the sidewalk in Singapore. So as dumb as his citation was, he was wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a foreign student advisor in a large East Coast university for many years and am appalled by the open and unapologetic attack on foreign students. I have thought long and hard about this issue and have some ideas on what it's really about. Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of you will take a moment to read it.

At first I thought it was just a part of an overall effort to bring a handful of "elite" institutions to heel in the guise of addressing anti-semitism and DEI. But as I dug further, I learned that:
--it's not just the usual suspects such as Columbia, Harvard, and other Ivy League universities that are being targeted nor are students being targeted just for anti-semitism. In fact, over 80 U.S. colleges and universities have had international students or recent alumni subjected to visa revocations, detentions, or deportations under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.In our own backyard, foreign students have been asked to leave GMU, UVA, and UMD, just to name a few.
--increasingly, there is 1) ZERO reason given for these actions or 2) the reason given by ICE is "Other" with no explanation given.
--increasingly, the students are not just Muslims, but also from a range of other countries.

To answer the OP's question about "what is the endgame," I would say these are some of the main motivations/objectives:

1) Nationalism/populist messaging to the base—“We’re protecting Americans from foreigners who want to take over our country, take our kids’ spots in universities, take our jobs, etc.”
2) Ideological control – threatening to deport foreign students or limit universities’ ability to enroll foreign students is a way to control universities and the educated class in general (the “elites”) and to limit dissent, a key tactic in authoritarianism (see Orban’s efforts to exert government control over public universities in Hungary, https://apnews.com/article/hungary-business-government-and-politics-europe-education-9b76dce30164e77be1c3a2fe47db8bfa)
3) Voter distraction and political theater. Whip up the base and their anti-foreigner impulses and hope they don’t notice the tanking economy, the Trump administration’s inability to meet its economic promises (lower grocery prices, lower housing costs, etc) and scandals like Signalgate.
4) Furthering the anti-globalization and anti-multiculturalism stance of the government. Attacking foreign students is a part of a larger project to disconnect the US from the rest of the world. This includes withdrawing the US from multinational organizations, imposing punishing tariffs on every country in the world, promoting anti-globalization rhetoric, and rejecting multiculturalism. Foreign students on US campuses are a tangible and potent symbol of multiculturalism and interconnectedness to the rest of the world.

Defund racist Harvard.

You are either a troll or a pawn in the scheme to divide the country.

Defund habitual racist Harvard.

And how would that change YOUR life?

More Americans with Harvard degrees to run American companies. Also, better odd for my kids to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a different poster, but you must not be paying attention to scotus, trump and his plan for striking down birthright citizenship.
You will no longer be a citizen because your parents are immigrants.

I’m not worried. They’d become l US citizens when I was born.

I’m also married to someone whose great-great grandparents were immigrants in 1845. What about him?

I believe Trump and his people are trying to exclude everyone whose parents were not born in the US, thus irrelevant that your parents *became* citizens. He doesn't want them either. Your husband clears that hurdle. I'm always amazed at how easily people think they are in the protected class and this is about others. No, it's about you.
My family on both sides have been here for 200+ years, and yet, I'm still concerned about others and their being protected and not targeted by this white nationalism.

So 4 of his five kids should get excluded? Just Tiffany will be left? Wait, wasn’t Trump’s own mother a Scottish immigrant?
Meanwhile, the majority of African Americans are descendants of people who got here WAY before 1865. Being a white nationalist is more complicated than I realized.

More fool you. It's every bit as complicated as I thought. BtW his misogyny is equally as complicated. So when we're done discussing the plight of foreign colored folks, we can discuss all american women who are also suffering from the DEI initiatives. I mean women of all colors come behind men of any color in the eyes of equality in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a foreign student advisor in a large East Coast university for many years and am appalled by the open and unapologetic attack on foreign students. I have thought long and hard about this issue and have some ideas on what it's really about. Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of you will take a moment to read it.

At first I thought it was just a part of an overall effort to bring a handful of "elite" institutions to heel in the guise of addressing anti-semitism and DEI. But as I dug further, I learned that:
--it's not just the usual suspects such as Columbia, Harvard, and other Ivy League universities that are being targeted nor are students being targeted just for anti-semitism. In fact, over 80 U.S. colleges and universities have had international students or recent alumni subjected to visa revocations, detentions, or deportations under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.In our own backyard, foreign students have been asked to leave GMU, UVA, and UMD, just to name a few.
--increasingly, there is 1) ZERO reason given for these actions or 2) the reason given by ICE is "Other" with no explanation given.
--increasingly, the students are not just Muslims, but also from a range of other countries.

To answer the OP's question about "what is the endgame," I would say these are some of the main motivations/objectives:

1) Nationalism/populist messaging to the base—“We’re protecting Americans from foreigners who want to take over our country, take our kids’ spots in universities, take our jobs, etc.”
2) Ideological control – threatening to deport foreign students or limit universities’ ability to enroll foreign students is a way to control universities and the educated class in general (the “elites”) and to limit dissent, a key tactic in authoritarianism (see Orban’s efforts to exert government control over public universities in Hungary, https://apnews.com/article/hungary-business-government-and-politics-europe-education-9b76dce30164e77be1c3a2fe47db8bfa)
3) Voter distraction and political theater. Whip up the base and their anti-foreigner impulses and hope they don’t notice the tanking economy, the Trump administration’s inability to meet its economic promises (lower grocery prices, lower housing costs, etc) and scandals like Signalgate.
4) Furthering the anti-globalization and anti-multiculturalism stance of the government. Attacking foreign students is a part of a larger project to disconnect the US from the rest of the world. This includes withdrawing the US from multinational organizations, imposing punishing tariffs on every country in the world, promoting anti-globalization rhetoric, and rejecting multiculturalism. Foreign students on US campuses are a tangible and potent symbol of multiculturalism and interconnectedness to the rest of the world.

Defund racist Harvard.

You are either a troll or a pawn in the scheme to divide the country.

Defund habitual racist Harvard.

And how would that change YOUR life?

More Americans with Harvard degrees to run American companies. Also, better odd for my kids to go.

Your kids are not getting in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a different poster, but you must not be paying attention to scotus, trump and his plan for striking down birthright citizenship.
You will no longer be a citizen because your parents are immigrants.

I’m not worried. They’d become l US citizens when I was born.

I’m also married to someone whose great-great grandparents were immigrants in 1845. What about him?

I believe Trump and his people are trying to exclude everyone whose parents were not born in the US, thus irrelevant that your parents *became* citizens. He doesn't want them either. Your husband clears that hurdle. I'm always amazed at how easily people think they are in the protected class and this is about others. No, it's about you.
My family on both sides have been here for 200+ years, and yet, I'm still concerned about others and their being protected and not targeted by this white nationalism.

So 4 of his five kids should get excluded? Just Tiffany will be left? Wait, wasn’t Trump’s own mother a Scottish immigrant?
Meanwhile, the majority of African Americans are descendants of people who got here WAY before 1865. Being a white nationalist is more complicated than I realized.

More fool you. It's every bit as complicated as I thought. BtW his misogyny is equally as complicated. So when we're done discussing the plight of foreign colored folks, we can discuss all american women who are also suffering from the DEI initiatives. I mean women of all colors come behind men of any color in the eyes of equality in this country.

What about the women murdered by illegal aliens? Laken Riley, Jocelyn Tanguay, Rachel Morin, etc? Where do they fall in your hierarchy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So is the idea that you have to be a United States citizen to go to a United States institution? Because if so, I’m not necessarily opposed to it.

That is because you are a xenophobic imbecile who has no understanding of the damage this would do to this country.

It would do zero damage this country- stop being a ridiculous fear monger. Barely any foreigners came to our colleges in much of the 20th century and that was peak America. We would all be better off without having to compete w them for our universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a foreign student advisor in a large East Coast university for many years and am appalled by the open and unapologetic attack on foreign students. I have thought long and hard about this issue and have some ideas on what it's really about. Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of you will take a moment to read it.

At first I thought it was just a part of an overall effort to bring a handful of "elite" institutions to heel in the guise of addressing anti-semitism and DEI. But as I dug further, I learned that:
--it's not just the usual suspects such as Columbia, Harvard, and other Ivy League universities that are being targeted nor are students being targeted just for anti-semitism. In fact, over 80 U.S. colleges and universities have had international students or recent alumni subjected to visa revocations, detentions, or deportations under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.In our own backyard, foreign students have been asked to leave GMU, UVA, and UMD, just to name a few.
--increasingly, there is 1) ZERO reason given for these actions or 2) the reason given by ICE is "Other" with no explanation given.
--increasingly, the students are not just Muslims, but also from a range of other countries.

To answer the OP's question about "what is the endgame," I would say these are some of the main motivations/objectives:

1) Nationalism/populist messaging to the base—“We’re protecting Americans from foreigners who want to take over our country, take our kids’ spots in universities, take our jobs, etc.”
2) Ideological control – threatening to deport foreign students or limit universities’ ability to enroll foreign students is a way to control universities and the educated class in general (the “elites”) and to limit dissent, a key tactic in authoritarianism (see Orban’s efforts to exert government control over public universities in Hungary, https://apnews.com/article/hungary-business-government-and-politics-europe-education-9b76dce30164e77be1c3a2fe47db8bfa)
3) Voter distraction and political theater. Whip up the base and their anti-foreigner impulses and hope they don’t notice the tanking economy, the Trump administration’s inability to meet its economic promises (lower grocery prices, lower housing costs, etc) and scandals like Signalgate.
4) Furthering the anti-globalization and anti-multiculturalism stance of the government. Attacking foreign students is a part of a larger project to disconnect the US from the rest of the world. This includes withdrawing the US from multinational organizations, imposing punishing tariffs on every country in the world, promoting anti-globalization rhetoric, and rejecting multiculturalism. Foreign students on US campuses are a tangible and potent symbol of multiculturalism and interconnectedness to the rest of the world.

Defund racist Harvard.

You are either a troll or a pawn in the scheme to divide the country.

Defund habitual racist Harvard.

And how would that change YOUR life?

More Americans with Harvard degrees to run American companies. Also, better odd for my kids to go.

Your kids are not getting in.

NP: I don’t care if my kids get in, I just wsnt other deserving, hard-working American kids to get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Endgame: make them stop enabling anti-semites and hosting foreigners that break our laws.

Exactly this.

[Anonymous]

It is interesting that at all of these schools. A lot of the people arrested or deported are graduate students who are full on endorsing “death to America” and “death to Israel”. The protests, the garb, the rhetoric, all of it….at Columbia and Cornell the massive and violent disruption.

I don’t know. It doesn’t seem so crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is interesting that at all of these schools. A lot of the people arrested or deported are graduate students who are full on endorsing “death to America” and “death to Israel”. The protests, the garb, the rhetoric, all of it….at Columbia and Cornell the massive and violent disruption.

I don’t know. It doesn’t seem so crazy.

I am the OP. The Singaporean just wanted to hang out with all the other undergrads (all the Americans have fake ids to party). He is not political at all, does not protest, does not post (an athlete scholar). He pays a premium to attend a USA institution. There seems to be no more context involved in these matters it’s all narrative and little due process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want to see how arbitrary the deportations of foreign students in this country can be, read this story of a PhD student from Japan who goes to BYU. His student visa was revoked due to a fishing license violation, which was dismissed by a judge. The student is a Mormon to boot, not a group exactly known for political rabble rousing or poor behavior.

“[His lawyer] told the Deseret News that his client went on a 2019 fishing activity with his Latter-day Saint ward. “He didn’t catch a fish — but because he was the organizer or the face of the activity, (Onda) was cited for harvesting more than their license permitted.”
Onda went to court, the attorney added, “but the prosecutor was like, ‘Yeah, we’re dismissing this’ — and it was dismissed.

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2025/04/16/byu-grad-student-has-student-visa-revoked/

When I travel to foreign countries I obey ALL laws, even the ones I don't agree with. Foreigners here should do the same or not come. I won't even spit on the sidewalk in Singapore. So as dumb as his citation was, he was wrong.

There is no law in the U.S. that prohibits criticism of a foreign nation.

Also, the suggestion that there should be such a law is an abomination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges want out of state kids hoping to lure in talent that will stay post graduation and improve their state. This is especially true of graduate school. I don’t see that happening with international students who take that education back home. If they want to pay on their dime that’s fine but taxpayer dollars flowing to private universities in particular should prioritize citizen students.

The vast majority of international students are full-pay.

Why not take more American full pay instead??

I think people like you need to understand two important things:

1) Most int'l students are full pay--and subsidize American students, especially at public institutions where they pay out-of-state rates. According to the Institute of International Education, nearly 67% of international students pay for tuition out of pocket from personal or family sources. At public universities, international students often pay higher tuition rates than in-state students, effectively subsidizing the cost of education for domestic students. My own DC's two closest friends at a state flagship university are full-pay foreign students paying around $70,000 for tuition and living expenses per year.

2) Most foreign students are not going to highly competitive colleges like Harvard (where, as many of you have implied, they are taking precious spots from American students--newsflash, your kid is STILL not going to get in to Harvard, even if no more foreign students are accepted). While Ivy League institutions do enroll international students, they constitute a relatively small percentage of the student body. A larger proportion of international students attend public universities and less selective private institutions. Many have come just for ESL programs, which is a moneymaker for colleges.

And what you need to understand is those students are not Americans. They can be full pay in their own country. We've hosted enough. They come here a protest the government - similar to me being invited to dinner at my neighbors and complaining about they way they run their home. The students are smart, they can be smart in their own country.

Much of the benefit of attending an institution like Harvard comes from the students who surround you, who come from all over the country, all over the world, and many different walks of life. Homogeneity doesn't make for a great university.

Many foreign grad students who get jobs at US universities invent things that make the US economy more competitive. That's one of the reasons we have a dynamic economy.

[Anonymous]

I am an American with two Ivy League degrees and the smartest classmates I had were largely the international students. The USA has been a beneficiary of the brain drain from countries where there has been less opportunity for talented students, but this won’t continue now that the USA has become a banana republic, chasing down students for breaking unwritten rules that MAGA morons have enacted according to their whims.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want to see how arbitrary the deportations of foreign students in this country can be, read this story of a PhD student from Japan who goes to BYU. His student visa was revoked due to a fishing license violation, which was dismissed by a judge. The student is a Mormon to boot, not a group exactly known for political rabble rousing or poor behavior.

“[His lawyer] told the Deseret News that his client went on a 2019 fishing activity with his Latter-day Saint ward. “He didn’t catch a fish — but because he was the organizer or the face of the activity, (Onda) was cited for harvesting more than their license permitted.”
Onda went to court, the attorney added, “but the prosecutor was like, ‘Yeah, we’re dismissing this’ — and it was dismissed.

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2025/04/16/byu-grad-student-has-student-visa-revoked/

When I travel to foreign countries I obey ALL laws, even the ones I don't agree with. Foreigners here should do the same or not come. I won't even spit on the sidewalk in Singapore. So as dumb as his citation was, he was wrong.

There is no law in the U.S. that prohibits criticism of a foreign nation.

Also, the suggestion that there should be such a law is an abomination.

+1. This admin is deporting students for having beliefs that they feel are dangerous. If you don’t recognize that as authoritarianism, you’re marching to the beat of your own alternative facts.

[Anonymous]

International students are charged way more than the in state students and in some states, way more than the out of state students. This money helps the universities. Students get a few years to work and they can pay off their loans. Some of them return with rich experience, some get on an h1b and contribute to the economy with taxes.