The following letter will be sent to the incoming Biden-Harris administration on behalf of the Students United Board of Directors.
Students United—the association tasked by the State of Minnesota to represent the 50,000+ students attending the seven Minnesota State universities—is excited for the opportunities presented by new appointments to the Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, and other key roles impacting higher education.
The role the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security play in the daily lives of students in colleges and universities across the nation cannot be overstated. An array of immigration policies that both make higher education less accessible to non-citizen and international students and make the United States appear hostile to immigrants and visitors has had a devastating impact on our Minnesota State college and university system, all of higher education in this country, and, consequentially, the future of the United States at large. Data shows a sudden and sharp decline in international student enrollment since spring 2017 and consistently every semester since. Before 2017, the trend was upwards. The sharpest decline was between fall 2019 and fall 2020, when new international student enrollment dropped by nearly 50%. While the pandemic certainly played a role in this most recent sharp enrollment decline, proposed policies from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would create barriers to international students safely completing distance learning created chaos over the summer months and added to a long list of practices and policies disincentivizing international student enrollment in our institutions.
Having the most desirable higher education in the world has made the United States a magnet for students and scholars from all over the world who come here to better their lives and, consequentially, better the United States as well. It is well-known that sectors of the economy rely on non-citizen and international talent educated through our institutions, including sectors increasingly critical to the future sustained success of our nation. But it’s less known that our institutions themselves increasingly rely on international students to keep them open and operating at high performance. Due to a decade and a half long trend of decreasing state investment in public two-year and four-year institutions—a trend that also disproportionately harms schools serving rural and high-need communities—schools have either chosen to cut their programs and operations, increase tuition, or both. International students’ tuition dollars are often used to prevent domestic tuition hikes and program cuts. Additionally, a lack of international and noncitizen students at our institutions results in a domestic workforce less prepared for a global economy. Finally, higher education is one of the only pathways to residency and citizenship for non-citizens, including DREAMers and those on F-1 visas.
Some people may falsely believe that policies that incentivize a U.S.-based higher education to non-residents is simply a favor to those students. In fact, our nation needs those students as much as they want to be enrolled in our universities. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, international students alone contributed $45 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018. New American Economy research shows that in just 2017, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders and people eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) together contributed more than $5.5 billion in taxes, including almost $2.5 billion to state and local governments.
We want to ensure your team is aware of the immigration policies that need to be shifted in order to serve public, affordable higher education institutions like ours so that higher education can continue to service the needs of our state and nation.
Discard USCIS Proposed Rule ICEB-2019-0006, which set a four-year limit on international visas and require reapplication for any academic stay past four years along with a reduction from 60 to 30 days of permissible stay after the academic program ends.
Overturn Executive Orders 13769/13780 and its January 2020 extension which restrict visas and entry, including for visiting scholars and students, from several nations, mostly Muslim-majority.
Finally cement a permanent solution for DREAMers, ensuring undocumented students can safely continue their education regardless of who is in Executive Office.
Expand access to federal financial aid that is currently available to domestic resident students as well as expand access to work permits, and increase permissible working hours and spaces, to allow non-resident, non-citizen students to freely work and contribute to the economy both during their time in higher education as well as post-graduation. These policies would not only ensure fair and equal access to higher education for all but would be appropriate policies proportional to non-resident, non-citizen students’ contribution to the economy, higher education, and federal tax revenue.
These steps are incredibly necessary for the future of higher education in the United States and the economy and society we hope to build together. If higher education cannot be attractive to international students, have a reliable future as an accessible means through which people can grow or change their economic conditions, or incubate the society we want to build, we cannot succeed in our purpose.