OPINION:
The presidential election is less than six months away, and polls indicate that voters continue to list border security as their top policy concern. With current estimates placing the number of immigrants that are in the United States illegally at 13.7 million, the sustained unlawful crossings are granting migrants unprecedented access and leading to an inevitable shift of our nation’s character.
Another arena reshaped by loosening international guardrails is our college campuses. The Open Doors 2023 Report on International Educational Exchange found that in the 2022-23 academic year, more than 1 million (1,057,188) international students came to learn at one of our nation’s higher education institutions.
This figure represents a 12% increase from the previous year, with students from China accounting for the largest share of foreign registrants. Much of America’s international student population enters through the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, the primary vehicle managing the process for foreigners to obtain a visa to study at a U.S. college or university.
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Granted, American students profit intellectually from engaging with an internationally diverse student population. Yet today, the share of foreign students studying at some of our most storied institutions surpasses what was once academia’s noble goal of granting young U.S. citizens an opportunity to learn from the varied cultures and religions that lie beyond our borders while still retaining an institutional commitment to civic dialogue.
Moreover, the pro-terror demonstrations unfolding at U.S. universities over the last few months witnessed foreign students hailing from countries such as Jordan and places in the West Bank at the forefront of stoking chaos and fomenting hate against the country that allowed them to study at one of our nation’s revered institutions of higher learning.
For example, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, combined government and university enrollment records place New York University’s foreign student enrollment at between 40% and 56% of its overall student population. Columbia University emulates this concerning trend. As of 2022, the think tank cites that of the 36,649 students enrolled at Columbia, 55% were foreign students.
Simply put, the university at the epicenter of facilitating a nationwide campus movement aimed at undermining American interests and inciting violence against Jewish students has over half of its student population consisting of foreign-born nationals.
The high share of noncitizens enrolled at schools with the most volatile campus climate suggests one avenue through which intellectual elites are deliberately drifting from training the next generation of U.S.-born leaders whose task will soon be to defend Western interests and uphold U.S. values.
Bumping international attendance, motivated by financial considerations and philosophical objectives, is one mechanism by which progressive bureaucrats can fulfill diversity, equity and inclusion mandates.
Perhaps most troubling, as middle-income Americans struggle to pay hefty tuition, a study by The Heritage Foundation notes that “foreign students pay, on average, much higher tuition than U.S. students do. They tend to pay the full sticker price, while U.S. students at private colleges have their undergraduate tuition discounted by about half or get their graduate tuition covered by fellowships.”
International student investments at U.S. schools are also occurring in tandem with the marginalization of America’s middle class, whose representation at many selective universities is steadily declining. In many cases, middle-income students hail from communities that embrace patriotic ideals and religious tradition, values that fail to comport with the intersectional narrative underpinning the elite space of academia.
Middle-class disaffection from these institutions is partially rooted in an understandable resistance to accommodating the price tag and cultural assault of enrolling at a school such as NYU or Columbia. In some cases, university heads are transparent about their efforts to conceal the behavior of international campus agitators above protecting law-abiding students. In November, MIT President Sally Kornbluth admitted that her softening approach to disciplining campus protesters was based on “serious concerns about collateral consequences for the students, such as visa issues,” and that the disrupters would remain enrolled at MIT.
The instincts of Ms. Kornbluth to raise the rights of foreign protesters rather than emphasize the security of Americans point to the depth of leftist distaste for preserving the academic integrity and patriotic spirit that once accompanied these citadels of education.
Moreover, current admission numbers suggest that international enrollment continues to grow at a cadre of schools, with more universities boasting a foreign-born student population that hovers between 25% and 40%. Congressional Republicans such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee should be applauded for urging the government to take steps against foreign students who want to turn our campuses into anti-American strongholds.
As for GOP leaders, they are correct to call for deporting those who harbor jihadi sympathies. Still, our current cultural order demands that the U.S. government take preemptive measures by incorporating stringent vetting procedures that prevent unsavory young actors from reaching America’s shores.
Across a rising number of campuses, demographic realities necessitate a course correction that prioritizes our nation’s hardest-working American families in the admissions process rather than reward foreigners for whom American values are antithetical to their worldview with acceptance to a U.S. college or university.
For those coming from abroad, school officials must make clear that America’s warm welcome is tied to the firm expectation that entering the campus quad requires displaying respect for our country — and our citizens.
• Irit Tratt is an independent writer residing in New York. Follow her on X @Irit_Tratt.
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