Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California warned Tuesday that the nation’s financial system and expertise pipeline may take successful if international students decide towards attending faculties in america due to President Donald Trump’s visa insurance policies.
“The truth is that you’ve got folks like Elon Musk who have been international college students, I imply, they’ve been embedded in Silicon Valley and the businesses which have been created,” Khanna stated on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, stated that world-class instructional alternatives for international college students are certainly one of America’s “largest exports of something.”
“You go speak to Stanford, you speak to different state faculties, lots of them depend on worldwide college students to have the ability to have the employment they do.” International college students who pay full freight additionally “assist defray the associated fee so American college students do not should pay as a lot.”
Through the 2023-2024 college yr, Worldwide college students contributed roughly $43.8 billion to the U.S. financial system in line with the nonpartisan nonprofit NAFSA, the Association of International Educators.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., is seen within the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
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Broadly seen as a possible contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, Khanna has constructed a popularity as an outspoken advocate for insurance policies that encourage tech innovation and entrepreneurship.
This has sometimes put Khanna and his get together at odds.
He is additionally been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s efforts to target international students as a part of its crackdown on each immigration and progressive campus tradition at a number of the nation’s prime universities.
Final month, the Division of Homeland Safety moved to revoke Harvard University’s means to enroll worldwide college students, marking a dramatic escalation of the administration’s efforts to compel the college to undertake the Trump administration’s ideological positions.
A federal decide has paused the ban from taking impact.
However specialists stated the DHS order would have a chilling impact on international college students nonetheless deciding whether or not to check within the U.S. subsequent fall — whatever the authorized battle enjoying out in courts.
Khanna has beforehand criticized the Harvard ban — and known as on Silicon Valley tech leaders to talk up towards it.
In a put up on X final month, Khanna title checked David Sacks, Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman and different tech titans, asking in the event that they have been “prepared to talk out towards” the ban on worldwide college students at Harvard.
“I do know … that there’s not a single tech chief who can defend this on the deserves,” Khanna wrote.