"Collapsing" foreign student enrollment touted as "restoring America greatness"

According to the White House, President Trump Is Restoring American Greatness One Win at a Time. Among those wins:

🎓 Foreign student enrollment is collapsing. New data reveals a 20% drop last spring after the Trump Administration dramatically tightened international visas. This multi-year decline is freeing thousands of spots for American students at colleges and universities across the country.

Good lord. There are so many problems with this. (I'm tackling international student enrollment in a forthcoming article with the Baltimore Law Review: "Campus Crackdown: The Second Trump Administration's Immigration Policies and International Students at U.S. Universities." Contact me if you'd like to see it before publication.)

The attack on international students is a true unforced error. International students are an economic boon to U.S. universities, local communities, and the United States. They have accounted for around 4.6% of all service exports. So, way to just throw money away.

Also, the argument that international student enrollment will free up seats for American students is just fallacious. Some university programs only exist because they are backed by international students. And university seats are largely scalable--capable of growing and shrinking with demand.

By the by, of course this isn't the only immigration item on the list. Here's the other:

🏠 Immigration and visa enforcement are driving down housing costs. Aggressive crackdowns on illegal immigration and H-1B visa abuse are slashing housing demand (and costs) across the country — especially in high-immigration tech hubs — delivering real relief where costs had surged the most and helping bring housing back within reach for American families.

Ugh. Maybe that'll be my next article.