Republican senators are brushing off concerns that high-profile arrests and deportations of foreign students may ostracize a group that is a major contributor to the U.S. economy. 

International students injected $43.8 billion into the U.S. last year, a key economic influx that has rebounded from a major downturn during the pandemic. California, New York and Texas are the states with the highest rate of foreign students. 

But some Republican senators say Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s student visa cancellations, high-profile arrests and push for deportations of student protesters are about protecting American national security, though many of the exact charges are unknown and sealed in the courts.

While Rubio said he has canceled more than 300 visas, it’s unclear how many of those are for foreign students. 

“They can be” an asset to the U.S. economy, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said of the students. But he put his full support behind the Trump administration’s rooting out individuals it says are supporting or sympathizing with terrorist organizations, though lawyers and advocates say they are only exercising free speech. 

“I hope it has a chilling effect on antisemites and racists and those who would engage in violent harassment from coming to this country,” Cruz said. “I’d like all of them to stay away and those who are here to promptly go home to their own countries and not threaten Americans here at home.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), former head football coach at Auburn University, said foreign students can be an asset to the U.S. economy, but falsely claimed that they are taking university slots from Americans. 

“The problem is we’re turning down a lot of qualified students in America that are being replaced by foreign students, and that shouldn’t happen,” Tuberville said. 

Referred to as the “enrollment cliff,” colleges are preparing for drops in applications as the number of young Americans are declining. 

College enrollment has been on a downward slope since the recession as birth rates in the U.S. have also slowed. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, birth rates have gone down 23 percent from 2007 to 2022. 

Attendance from foreign students has rebounded since the pandemic, with a record 1.1 million in the U.S. in the 2023-2024 school year. 

With the rise in enrollment of international students, the amount these individuals spend in the U.S. also saw a spike of $43.8 billion, according to data collected by the Association for International Educators and JB International.

They also make up a valued part of the workforce, as foreign-born students who get their degrees in the U.S. often stay after they graduate. One out of every four billion-dollar startups in America was created by former international students, according to a 2018 study by the National Foundation for American Policy.

But universities and advocates say the U.S. political atmosphere and public arrests are raising concerns over foreign students’ safety and could contribute to a decline in those choosing the U.S. as a destination for overseas studies. 

The administration has created an environment “terrorizing students and faculty for their exercise of First Amendment rights in the past, intimidating them from exercising those rights now, and silencing political viewpoints that the government disfavors,” three academic groups argue in a lawsuit challenging the attempted actions of the administration to deport foreign students. 

Among the most high profile arrests is green card holder Mahmoud Khalil, the lead negotiator of the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University last spring who graduated in December. 

He was arrested back in February and is still under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention while his case is litigated. Since his arrest, around 10 high-profile cases to revoke and kick individuals out of the country, ranging from international students to foreign professors, have gone to the courts. 

In the court cases, the federal government has pulled out a rarely before used law that states the secretary of State can remove the immigration status of a noncitizen when they threaten the foreign policy of the United States.

“Security vetting runs from the time of each application, through adjudication of the visa, and afterwards during the validity period of every issued visa, to ensure the individual remains eligible to travel to the United States,” the State Department said in a statement to The Hill. “The Department of State will continue to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to administer and enforce U.S. immigration laws.”

The arrests have not only been concentrated at Ivy League, blue state universities but have also hit states such as Alabama with two Republican senators. 

Iranian national Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, was arrested by ICE in March. David Rozas, an attorney representing Doroudi, told NBC News that he is “confused” over Doroudi’s arrest, unaware of any allegations of misconduct. 

“We do not believe he is suspected to have committed any crimes nor participated in any political activities whatsoever,” Rozas said. 

A Turkish student at Tufts University was arrested on the street by plain clothes officers last month and taken away in an unmarked van. Rumeysa Ozturk wrote an op-ed for her school paper defending Palestine, but it is unclear if she engaged in any protest activities. 

“The rationale for this arrest appears to be this student’s expression of her political views. We are calling for full due process in this case and are seeking answers about this case and about ICE’s policy that has led to the identification and arrest of university students with valid legal status,” Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security regarding Ozturk’s arrest. 

Most have some known background of participating in pro-Palestinian protests on campus or making their support for Palestine publicly known on campus. 

Two of the cases brought on by the federal government saw the foreign students leave the country on their own, a move the Trump administration has called “self-deporting.” 

And Republicans are further putting a bulls-eye on Chinese students coming to the U.S., building on years of concerns over whether Beijing is recruiting its citizens studying at American universities to carry out espionage. 

Intelligence officers have warned of the phenomenon and the Center for Strategic International Studies found multiple convictions against Chinese professors working in U.S. universities. However, fewer charges have succeeded against foreign students from China. 

In March, Chairman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) of the House Select Committee on China sent a letter to six universities requesting information about its policies in enrolling Chinese foreign students into advanced STEM programs. 

The chairman also questioned whether these students should be allowed in federally funded research. 

“The Chinese Communist Party has established a well-documented, systematic pipeline to embed researchers in leading U.S. institutions, providing them direct exposure to sensitive technologies with dual-use military applications,” said Moolenaar. 

“America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing, providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security. If left unaddressed, this trend will continue to displace American talent, compromise research integrity, and fuel China’s technological ambitions at our expense,” he added. 

Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) introduced legislation last month that would block all Chinese nationals from studying in the U.S. A companion bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.). 

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also raised concern about Chinese students in the U.S. being recruited by Beijing. 

“I think we need to look at what areas they’re studying in. For example, if they’re studying nuclear physics, or other sensitive national security topics that should be a subject of concern,” he said. 

But he also said that foreign students in the U.S. can be a key tool of American soft power, to “inculcate” them and “why they should be our friend.”

But the Trump administration has taken a sledgehammer to many of the soft power tools — eliminating the U.S. Agency for International Development that provided services ranging from life-saving support to scholarships; imposing tariffs on nearly the entire global community; and threatening hostile takeovers of allied countries like taking Greenland from Denmark, annexing Canada or reasserting ownership of the Panama Canal. 

And some are not putting their faith in the U.S. justice system to protect them against Trump’s crackdown on foreign students.  

“Given what we have seen across the United States, I have lost faith that a favourable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs,” Momodou Taal, a foreign student the Trump administration targeted who recently left the country, said in a statement. “I have lost faith I could walk the streets without being abducted.”