US immigration crackdown is bad news for towns dependent on international students

The Trump administration has recently revoked the visas of more than 1,300 foreign college students – detaining some – and launched immigration enforcement actions on college campuses across the country. This has raised concerns among the more than 1.1 million international students studying at US universities.

Headlines are filled with perspectives from immigration and civil rights experts, but one aspect of the story often goes overlooked: the tremendous economic impact international students have on local communities.

Although the actual impact on enrollment won’t be known until the next academic year, interest from foreign students in pursuing graduate-level education in the US fell sharply in the early days of the Trump administration, one analysis showed.

If these global scholars stay home, that’s bad economic news for cities and towns across the United States.

$44-billion impact

Higher education is America’s 10th-largest export, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. (Yes, even though students are coming into the US for their education, economists consider it an export.)

Last year, US colleges and universities attracted international students from 217 nations and territories, including one student from the island nation of Niue in the South Pacific. Their economic contributions added up to more than the value of US telecommunications, computer and information services exports combined.

While the national impact is impressive, the effects at the local level are even more important. After all, nearly every city across...

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