Trump Defends Proposal for 600,000 Chinese Student Visas

President Donald Trump is defending his proposal to offer a record 600,000 visas to Chinese students.

In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on November 11, Trump stated, “We do have a lot of people coming in from China. We always have, China and other countries. We also have a massive system of colleges and universities. And if we were to cut that in half, which perhaps makes some people happy, you would have half the colleges in the United States [going] out of business.”

In the same interview, Trump advocated importing more H-1B workers into the United States, despite signing a proclamation in September to do the opposite.

Fox News reported:

The remarks mark a reversal from earlier this year, when the Trump administration said it would “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas amid espionage concerns. In August, Trump changed course and announced plans to expand the program dramatically.

More than 277,000 Chinese students studied in the U.S. during the 2023-2024 school year, according to the Institute of International Education — the second-largest foreign student population after India. That figure is down from a peak of over 372,000 in 2019-2020.

The comments come as the State Department has intensified its visa crackdown, revoking more than 80,000 nonimmigrant visas — including about 8,000 student visas — since the start of Trump’s term. Officials say many were revoked over criminal activity or participation in rallies against U.S. support for Israel.

Although immigration policy — specifically, reducing both illegal and legal migration — has been one of the bright spots of Trump’s second term, the president has occasionally contradicted his administration’s own policies by advocating increased legal migration to the United States, as he did during his first term.

In addition to the broader dangers of mass migration, increasing the number of Chinese student visas would give Communist China an opportunity to expand its theft of U.S. research and technology. Rather than go along with such a proposal, Congress should adopt a true “America First” migration policy and end mass migration into the United States.