A US federal judge has halted the implementation of a Trump administration policy that would impose strict time limits on how long foreign students and journalists can study or work in the United States, issuing a preliminary injunction just a day before the measures were set to take effect.
District Judge Dennis Saylor granted the temporary injunction on Monday following a lawsuit brought by a coalition of unions representing universities, educators, and journalists, putting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations on hold pending an October 2 hearing.
Under the proposed framework, international students would face a hard four-year cap on their initial stay before being required to apply for extensions, replacing long-standing regulations that permitted them to remain for the full duration of their academic programmes.
Stays for foreign journalists would be curtailed from up to five years to just 240 days (around eight months), with Chinese journalists restricted to 90-day permits.
Judicial pushback
Judge Saylor voiced sharp scepticism regarding the government's justification, pointing out that the existing framework enabled tens of millions of international students to contribute to "groundbreaking research in science, medicine, and technology, substantial economic growth, and a host of other benefits."
"Rather than attempt to improve that system, DHS elected to replace it with a new program that will substantially restrict the overall number of foreign students, researchers, professors, and journalists," Saylor wrote.
The judge warned that DHS extension denials would be "entirely discretionary and unappealable," empowering officials to terminate academic or research work "for no reason or any reason."
He cautioned that foreign journalists would similarly face "no recourse and no appeal," creating "rampant" possibilities for abuse against reporters critical of the administration.
Dismissing DHS's national security claims as "based almost entirely on a small handful of anecdotes" that bordered "on the absurd," Saylor froze the policy.
