The Trump administration’s actions attempting to deport international students and its bid to end Harvard’s international enrollment have put our international students and scholars on edge. They will scare off many of them who will now fear, with reason, that their academic career in the United States could be disrupted at any point and will have a growing chill on attracting others to the country.

These actions are surprising because they ignore the contributions of international students and scholars to our universities, communities and our country. Enrollment from abroad has doubled in the last 25 years, and according to IIE we had more than 1.1 million international students studying in the United States, accounting for 6% of the total U.S. higher education population. According to NAFSA, these students contributed more than $43 billion and supported 378,175 jobs to the U.S. economy during the 2023-2024 academic year. It is also worth emphasizing that international students have to prove that they have enough funds to study in the United States in order to get their student visas.

Furthermore, international enrollment is particularly important at this time because domestic enrollment has been declining in U.S. institutions for the last 10 years. The so-called “enrolment cliff” caused by the expected drop in the population of high school graduates is projected to begin in 2026, which will result in a smaller pool of domestic students able to enter universities.