As a college student, I don’t believe we appreciate just how fascinating universities are as a concept. 

We as a society built centers of learning where the most innovative researchers, the most qualified teachers and the brightest students can work together to discover more about our world. Oftentimes, the diversity on these campuses reflects both their local area and the world as a whole.

In few other places will you find people with so many different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, all gathered together for a singular purpose — to learn.

This variety of students and educators is one of the main reasons why universities in the United States consistently retain a majority of the top 10 positions in ranking lists like those by the U.S. News and World Report and Times Higher Education, despite falling to 31st place in the overall education ranking from the World Population Review.

The sheer academic firepower of these universities attracts students and educators from around the world, further boosting the educational prestige and educational potential of the U.S. According to a report by the global nonprofit Institute of International Education, the U.S. hosted over 1.1 million international students in the 2023-24 academic year, a record for the nation.

However, not everyone is excited about this educational tourism.

The Trump administration recently signaled it would begin to crack down on international students studying in the U.S., including attempts to stop Harvard from enrolling international students and threats to revoke Chinese students’ visas. Many of these attacks parallel nativist rhetoric about international students taking spots at prestigious universities from U.S. citizens, despite accounting for just 6% of the U.S. university population, according to the IIE report.

Tim Collins, a political science lecturer at the University of Minnesota, said the targeting of international students is meant to appease some of President Donald Trump’s base by targeting two groups that are distrusted by many on the political right — universities and immigrants.

“I think a lot of the administration feels like they are empowered right now to do whatever they want with regards to anyone who is not a native-born American,” Collins said.

Much like how many Americans do not acknowledge the tremendous positive impact that immigrant workers have on our country, many are similarly in the dark about how beneficial international students are to the U.S.

According to a report from the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers, international students contributed over $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy through tuition and living expenses and supported over 378,000 jobs during the 2023-24 academic year. In Minnesota alone, each international student contributed an average of over $32,500 to the economy, for a total of $488 million in a single academic year. 

The benefits of having international students last beyond their graduation. According to an article from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think tank, international students are at the forefront of innovation in STEM fields, with almost half of STEM graduate students hailing from outside the U.S. 

However, the article also notes that more and more of these students are leaving the U.S. due to factors like the lack of available visas, intense global competition for skilled workers and recent research funding cuts. This brain drain reflects a deeper problem — the U.S. is either unable to retain its talent or is actively driving it away.

Collins said most university professors, even those who may identify with the political right, cannot deny the tremendous benefits international students bring to the campuses where they study.

“Every professor likes international students because they are usually very conscientious and very committed,” Collins said. “To single them out when they make things better on every level is so strange.”

Collins said the advice of Stephen Miller — a longtime Trump advisor and immigration hardliner – explains most of the recent crackdown on international students and asylum seekers who aren’t white South Africans.

“He’s on FOX News all the time, he sees Trump every day,” Collins said. “He’s extremely powerful, and I think his empowerment explains most of this.”

Miller’s extremely strict immigration agenda and his proposed methods, which promised at least 3,000 ICE arrests per day, remain controversial. Miller is even divisive within the administration, allegedly berating officials in an emergency meeting of Department of Homeland Security staff.

If Miller gets his way and international students are either deported or lose their legal status, the effects across college campuses could be catastrophic. The University system taught over 5,700 international students as of fall 2024, granting the system both a variety of talented students and a critical source of income.

The University said in a statement emailed to the Minnesota Daily that teams are working to navigate recent developments, including the recent pause on student visa interviews at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.

“International students and scholars have been and will always be an essential part of the University of Minnesota,” the statement said. “The knowledge and skills they develop on campus and contribute to the broader community prepare all our students to become the next generation of world leaders who can work across languages, cultures and borders to solve shared global challenges.”

In the meantime, international students must deal with the impending perils of visa revocation, detainment and deportation, even for things as simple as expressing their opinions. A number of students, including Columbia University student Yunseo Chung and Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk, were arrested after speaking out or publishing articles criticizing Israeli policy in Gaza.

Collins said while many international students are understandably scared to speak out against the Trump administration’s policy, he hopes they are able to use the resources available to them to continue their studies in the U.S.

“I hope international students know that they are welcome and loved,” Collins said. “And I hope they make use of the legal services available to them.”

In a time when American educational dominance is waning, American universities’ ability to attract the brightest minds from across the world has helped to keep U.S. industry and innovation afloat. The diversity on college campuses is not a weakness, but a strength, and deporting the very students holding entire industries up is economic suicide.

So, to all international students out there, I just want to say you are not alone. You are strong, you are intelligent and you should be praised for all that you do to improve our nation, not demonized and cast aside.

For a nation largely built by immigrants, the U.S. is quick to forget the faces behind many of its greatest innovations, and that is something we all must work to change.