Expert: A Biden Win Could Help International Students

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Education Dive, Oct. 30, 2020

"The Trump administration's immigration policies have driven down international student enrollment in the last few years, policy experts say, a trend the public health crisis has exacerbated. Other factors, including rising tuition and more competition from other countries, have also contributed to the drop-off. Joe Biden, if elected president, has pledged to walk back a laundry list of Trump-era restrictions, a feat likely made easier because several were achieved through executive orders he could rescind. ... In September, the White House proposed limiting international student visas to four year-periods and setting up precise new procedures for extending their stay. Biden could revoke these regulations. However, if they are finalized before Trump leaves office, a new administration would have to go through the lengthy regulatory process again, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell University. The rules also could be undone through the Congressional Review Act, which gives lawmakers the ability to override finalized regulations within 60 days Congress is in session. Republicans took advantage of the tool early in Trump's tenure to throw out Obama-era rules. More pressing, though, are the pandemic's effects on international and unauthorized students, and the Trump Education Department's refusal to grant them coronavirus relief funding, Yale-Loehr said."