Indranil Banerjie | Trump Crackdown: Ending the Free Ticket to Paradise?

US President Donald Trump’s decision to clamp down on the intake of foreign students has produced a flurry of condemnatory commentaries both outside and within the United States. India, which will be the worst hit, has responded with extreme gloom and prophecies about the end of the “American Dream”.

The fear and censure stem from President Trump’s recent executive orders cutting short students’ academic terms in the United States, deporting some forcibly and halting new student visa interviews. He has also banned Harvard University from enrolling foreign students, a move that has been contested in the courts.

The US President’s critics have pointed to the potential for immense damage his foreign student related decisions could wreak on the economy and the country’s larger cultural landscape. They claim that the open-door policies of American academia attracted the best and the brightest from around the world and helped maintain the country’s innovative edge. Some argue that the rich cultural milieu fostered by continued immigration will crumble while others, more mindful of their pockets, bemoan the diminution of the billions that foreign students annually bring in.

The stridency of the critics has a lot perhaps to do with the fact that the more progressive elements of American society tend to be virulently anti-Trump and abhor his conservative politics that often seem to border on jingoism and xenophobia. His critics view him as a person single-handedly wrecking American institutions, especially those intrinsic to the nation’s liberal character. His attacks on hallowed US institutions such as Harvard and Columbia universities have only hardened liberal positions.

President Trump’s justification for the crackdown is ostensibly based on what he considers to be rampant anti-Semitism and other anti-national activities, including espionage, on US campuses. While various additional arguments have been propounded to explain Mr Trump’s crackdown on foreign student intakes through visa refusals, deportation threats and visa revocations, the move could be part of a larger plan to end the apparently free inflow of immigrants through various routes into the country.

At one end of the immigration spectrum are the foot-sloggers marching to the US borders to climb over fences to become part of the American dream, while on the other are legal immigrants, many of whom arrive as students and then almost automatically acquire jobs to settle down in the country. Legal immigration accounts for about 77 per cent of inflows and Indian students constitute the majority of this type.

According to official US data, one in four international students entering the US every year is an Indian. This figure has only been increasing in recent years. Since 2009, Indian students have outnumbered their Chinese counterparts, growing a record 11.8 per cent between 2023 and 2024. Last year, 4.2 lakh Indian students enrolled in US universities, with the majority opting for programmes that would allow them to stay on indefinitely in the country.

Mr Trump’s conservative and working-class supporters do not consider unchecked immigration to be worthy of celebration, especially since foreigners have been competing for jobs both at the lower and the hi- tech ends of the employment ladder.

In many urban areas, they have also been out competing locals for basic amenities such as housing and schooling. This cannot but fuel immense resentment, especially since the problem has only mounted in recent times.

It is estimated that in 2023 America’s foreign-born population reached a historical high of 48 million, growing by a staggering 1.6 million in one year alone. Pew Research points out that “immigrants today account for 14.3 per cent of the American population, a roughly three-fold increase from 4.7 per cent in 1970”. Traditionally, Mexicans have been the largest immigrant group, which is understandable since they are neighbours, but in recent years it is the Indian population that has been growing the fastest.

Middle class families in India have been shipping off their offspring to the United States in record numbers even if it means selling off family assets or taking massive bank loans. For many Indians, one family member “settled” in the US translates into a gilt-edged investment which will ensure lifetime security for parents, and at times, the entire extended family.

Not surprisingly, President Trump’s efforts to strangle the flow of foreign students has evoked widespread dismay in India. As one Bloomberg correspondent reported: “The worries are pouring in on my parent chat groups. Many have already spent thousands of dollars preparing children for a future at a prestigious American university -- hiring expensive college counsellors, visiting campuses, and investing countless hours navigating complex application processes.”

Hundreds of thousands of students, not just in India, but across the world waiting to join US universities, are anxiously following the Trump administration’s decisions and skirmishes with academia and the judiciary. Many believe this is the end of easy access into America.

Despite the panic and uproar over President Trump’s moves to curtail foreign student intakes, the case seems to be one of more smoke than fire. To begin with, there is nothing to indicate that he plans to end all student intakes or end immigration completely. All his actions are designed to reduce the flow of foreigners into the country, not to block it.

Trumpian stratagems favour a disruptive approach to change; the idea is to coerce his targets through shock and awe. This often causes more consternation and condemnation than real transformation. In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, tightened immigration rules led to a record number of deportations last year, which included students who had taken up jobs and were happily residing in the country.

There was no hue and cry there because the entire process was carried out in an orderly and judicious manner.

Like Chinese emperors who expanded and fortified the Great Wall of China for centuries to stem the flow of barbarians into their country, Mr Trump has started a process of building physical and virtual walls around his country. His barrier might not prove leak-proof, but it will greatly deter the surging thousands who want free entry into the United States.

President Trump’s blitzkrieg-like tactics is a form of deterrence. The deportation of handcuffed illegal immigrants being offloaded from a military plane in an airfield in Punjab might have returned only a handful of Indians, but more importantly, it drove home a message: a passage to America should no longer be considered a free ticket to paradise.