Podcast hosts Nicole Hemmer (Obama Presidency Oral History Project, Columbia University), Natalia Mehlman Petrzela (Associate Professor of History, Eugene Lang College, The New School) and Neil J. Young (The Week) discuss the motivation and impact of the recent effort to impose restrictions on student visas for foreign students studying at American universities. 

President Donald Trump has threatened that international students attending American universities that are teaching entirely online must return to their home countries. Niki referred to Adam Serwer’s 2018 Atlantic article, “The Cruelty is the Point,” and to this Washington Post opinion piece about how this measure advances Stephen Miller’s restrictionist agenda. Natalia drew on this piece at The Conversation about the impact of a reduction of international students on American universities and society.