The Trump administration proposed a new rule Wednesday that would limit how long foreign students are allowed to study in the United States.
The rule targets visas for foreign students, cultural exchange programs and foreign media, and comes as the administration has taken aggressive actions related to student visas and continues its crackdown on some international students it says have broken the law.
Foreign students who have the F visa can currently stay in the US for 60 days after finishing their studies. But the new rule would change the admission period for foreign students and exchange visitors to a fixed time period of “up to the duration of the program they are participating in, not to exceed a 4-year period.”
The rule also sets the admission period for foreign media, which is currently the duration of the program or employment, for up to 240 days, though people would be able to extend it for the same length.
“For too long, past Administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the U.S. virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amount of taxpayer dollars, and disadvantaging U.S. citizens,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson said the proposed rule “would end that abuse once and for all by limiting the amount of time certain visa holders are allowed to remain in the US, easing the burden on the federal government to properly oversee foreign students and their history.”
The State Department has also ramped up rules and regulations for vetting student visas in recent months. More than 6,000 student visas have been revoked this year, a State Department official said last week.
Those visas were revoked because people had stayed after their visas expired or broken the law, the official said, noting that the “vast majority” of those legal violations were for cases of assault, driving under the influence, burglary and “support for terrorism.”
The number of visas revoked is nearly four times many as during the same time period last year, according to a State Department official.
The State Department also told its embassies and consulates in June it must vet student visa applicants for “hostile attitudes towards our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.
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