Zach Schermele
Appearances
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
There have been a lot of actions, and I'll try and tick through a couple of them here. So in March, college officials started checking a federal immigration database that they have to use often. It's called the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, or SEVIS database, and they were really alarmed
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
to see that the Department of Homeland Security was beginning to quietly remove the records of what ultimately became thousands of foreign students. At first, it wasn't really clear why the students' records were being terminated, but Then the Trump administration later revealed in a court battle that those names of students were being cross referenced with a separate criminal database.
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
So in some cases, students were being targeted simply for being involved in minor traffic violations. On April 16th, the Department of Homeland Security also threatened to impede Harvard University's ability to enroll students from abroad. And that would be a really unprecedented move that could devastate that campus if the White House moved forward with it.
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
What's wild is that amid all of that uncertainty at Harvard, that Ivy League school actually allowed international students in the undergraduate college to accept admissions offers from other schools in other countries in case something happened with their immigration status if they came to the U.S.
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
interesting we'll get to other countries here in a second zach but i i just i'm curious how much money do international students bring to the country and to these schools it's quite a bit right right and american colleges and universities have really long been the most sought after studying destinations for students across the globe hundreds of thousands come to the u.s annually to enroll in both undergraduate programs and graduate programs
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
In the 2023 to 2024 school year alone, more than 1.1 million foreign students contributed more than $43 billion to the U.S. economy. That's according to the Association of International Educators. That same association also estimates that they supported more than 378,000 jobs.
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
Yeah, I don't think it's entirely understood by most folks that university budgets and research and teaching programs really rely heavily on the uninterrupted flow of international student enrollments. Unlike domestic students, international students are more likely to pay full tuition prices.
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
Also, when you think about science, technology, engineering and math graduate programs, STEM focused programs for fields like computer science, for instance, the number of foreign students typically outweighs the number of domestic students. And that dynamic in many cases makes it possible for U.S. born students to enroll in programs that they wouldn't otherwise be able to at certain schools.
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
The short answer is yes. So for scientists hoping to study in the U.S., the European Union has a clear message, which is come here instead. And colleges are worried that if the Trump administration continues on with some of its policies surrounding immigration and cuts to federal research funding, that students are going to take that leap.
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
The first week of May, for instance, some of the European Union's most high profile leaders gathered at the Sorbonne, which is the most prominent university in Paris, to launch a new initiative called Choose Europe for Science. It's about a 500 million euro investment meant to attract foreign researchers and college students.
The Excerpt
RFK grilled during contentious hearing
It wasn't lost on the president of the European Commission that that program really stands in stark contrast to some of the cuts that the Trump administration is moving forward with. She called that a, quote, gigantic miscalculation.