US Judge Blocks Trump Rule Capping Foreign Student, Journalist Visas

A US federal judge has temporarily halted a new Trump administration policy limiting the duration foreign students and journalists can stay in America. The ruling, issued by Massachusetts District Judge Dennis Saylor IV, will provide temporary relief to international students, many from India, and was issued just one day before the policy was set to take effect.

Judge Saylor concluded that the new regulation would likely inflict "catastrophic" harm on the US economy and higher education system, dismissing the government's assertion that it was necessary to safeguard the nation. The judge also rejected the government's claim that the relief should only apply to the plaintiffs and not the entire country.

The preliminary injunction places a hold on the rule's implementation while the case proceeds through the court system. The plaintiffs, representing nearly 600 public and private institutions, noted that the injunction does not cover the nearly 5,000 higher education institutions across the United States. The judge explained that limiting relief to the parties represented would necessitate maintaining separate regulatory systems and making repeated, potentially inconsistent decisions about which students or institutions fall under the order's scope.

The Trump administration's rule, finalized in July, set a four-year cap on student and exchange visitor visas, and a 240-day limit on visas for journalists, excluding China. Journalists from China were initially restricted to a 90-day visa. The new rules were scheduled to go into effect the following day. The regulation permitted students and journalists to request extensions, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) held the authority to grant or deny such requests, with no avenue for appeal.

Several organizations, primarily representing the higher education sector and labor unions, filed lawsuits to overturn the rule. Harvard University President Alan M. Garber had described the rule as "odd," pointing out the mismatch between the four-year cap and the typical duration of a PhD program, which usually lasts at least six years.

The Department of Homeland Security argued that the limits would aid in curbing fraud and expediting the identification of individuals overstaying their visas. However, Judge Saylor pointed out the potential for abuse, highlighting the likelihood that visas of critical foreign journalists, potentially including those from the Department of Homeland Security, would not be renewed.