US judge blocks Trump rule limiting visas for foreign students, journalists

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration rule that sought to limit how long foreign students, journalists and exchange visitors could stay in the US, just a day before the policy was due to take effect.

Massachusetts district judge F Dennis Saylor IV ruled on Monday that the new policy would probably cause “catastrophic” damage to the US economy and higher-education system. He rejected the government’s argument that the restrictions were necessary to protect national security.

Rule proposed limits on visas

Finalised by the Trump administration in July, the rule sought to impose a four-year limit on visas for students and exchange visitors. Journalists would have faced a 240-day limit, while journalists from China would have been restricted to 90 days.

Students and journalists could apply for extensions under the policy, but approval would have been left to officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The rule also did not provide an avenue to appeal a rejected extension.

The policy was scheduled to come into effect on Tuesday.

Court order applies nationwide

Saylor’s preliminary injunction halts implementation of the rule while the legal challenge proceeds.

The judge also rejected the government’s request to restrict the relief to the organisations and individuals who brought the case.

The plaintiffs represent nearly 600 public and private institutions. However, the US has more than 5,000 higher-education institutions, the judge noted.

Saylor said limiting the injunction to the plaintiffs could force authorities to maintain separate regulatory systems and repeatedly determine which students and institutions were covered by the order.

Universities and unions challenged rule

Several organisations, including groups representing higher education institutions and labour unions, had approached the court seeking to have the rule struck down.

Harvard President Alan M Garber had criticised the four-year limit in July, pointing to the length of doctoral programmes.

“A typical PhD program usually takes at least six years, so four years is a bit odd as the cutoff for the visa,” Garber said in July.

The DHS has argued that the restrictions would help prevent fraud and make it easier to identify people who overstay their visas.

Judge raises concerns over journalists

The judge also flagged the possibility that the policy could be used against journalists critical of the government.

He wrote that “in particular, the obvious likelihood that the visas of foreign journalists who are critical of the government—more particularly, DHS officials—will not be renewed.”

Saylor said the limited connection between the rule and the government’s stated reasons raised questions about whether its actual purpose could include greater government control over academic institutions and the press.

“The weakness of the connection between the rule and its purported rationales raises legitimate questions as to whether its real purpose is not to safeguard national security and protect our borders, but to achieve other, undisclosed, goals—such as, for example, asserting greater government control over academic institutions and the press,” the judge said.