In this episode, General Audio Staffer Adele Doat sat down with Senior News Reporter Ellie Symons to discuss recent changes to immigration rules affecting international students and how these may deter prospective international students from studying at UT.
Narrated and edited by Adele Doat. Cover photo by Tessa Harfenist. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.
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Doat: My name is Adele Doat and I am a general audio staffer for The Daily Texan. The Texan Explains is a weekly news podcast featuring reporters from the news department, explaining the biggest stories that are impacting students at the moment. In this episode, I sat down with Senior News Reporter Ellie Symons to discuss recent changes to immigration rules affecting international students and how these may deter prospective international students from studying at UT.
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Doat: Hi Ellie, thanks for joining me today. How are you?
Symons: I’m good, how are you?
Doat: I’m good. So recently, international students at UT received emails informing them about the end of the duration of status rule. So the new regimen was supposed to take effect on Sept. 15, but it was postponed. Ellie, you reported on this new policy this summer when it was first announced. Can you explain what the duration of status system is and what it is being replaced with?
Symons: Yeah, so the system that was set up, the duration of status system, um, allowed students to remain in the United States as long as they maintain their legal status and they just made normal academic progress, rather than having them be cut off by a specific calendar date. So, what happened is that the policy change was announced over the summer by the Department of Homeland Security. Under the new policy, international students would only be allowed to stay in the U.S. for the exact length of their degree program with an automatic maximum of four years, but they could apply for an extension based on however long they needed for their degree plan. And, students would have 30 days instead of the previous 60 days before and after those four years, or however long they applied for an extension for, as like, a travel period and they would have to apply for an extension if they need, again, to pursue a degree that takes more time than the program allotted them.
Doat: And how do students get these visa extensions?
Symons: The student visa extensions are now available through, I saw a DHS news release that says that they’re only going to be available through ‘rigorous vetting.’ So that’s what they said.
Doat: Right, and so what did the Department of Homeland Security say was a reason behind this new rule?
Symons: Right, so a DHS official wrote in a news release that he hopes the change will prevent international students from abusing the current open-ended visa system and keeping students focused on completing their degree. So, DHS has basically said that some students will prolong their stay by enrolling in classes while not actually working towards the degree as just a way of staying in the United States.
Doat: And how many students will be impacted by this rule? Is it only applying to new international students?
Symons: So the rule applies to non-immigrant students who have F visas. So basically that includes students pursuing study at a U.S. university or English language program and then exchange visitors who have the J visas. And then current visa holders will be held to the new rule automatically and they’ll have their stay capped at four years from the effective date of the rule change. But, as we know now, we don’t know when that’s going to go into effect.
Doat: Yeah, and how big is the international student community on campus at UT?
Symons: So right now, according to the numbers, there’s 1,923 international undergraduate students and over 4,000 international graduate students are enrolled at UT. And then the median time to complete a bachelor’s degree is actually over four years, it’s 4.3, um, just according to Google and the resources that we have now. But the University currently allows students to work up towards six years for graduate degree. That’s like the max right now. And under the new rules, undergraduates wouldn’t be able to change their major in their first year of study and then graduate students won’t be able to change their field of study at all.
Doat: And you talked to some international students. What was their reaction to this?
Symons: Yeah, so, um, Emily, the reporter that I worked with recently, um, she’s amazing. So she was able to talk to a bunch of international students, graduate and undergraduate. The undergraduate students said they noticed greater levels of anxiety and just great worrying from the communities that they’re in. And then a graduate student says that, like, it was always in the back of their head. They were just worried that the political climate could swing in a more negative direction. Other things could happen to them. Just general worries. But that’s what we heard.
Doat: Yeah. And the rule, which was supposed to take effect on Sept. 15, was postponed. Do we know why?
Symons: Yes. So it was a federal court, um, in Massachusetts, I believe, that postponed the new policy.
Doat: And it’s still, uh, ongoing. We don’t know when it’s actually going to take effect. And this is not the only new restriction affecting international students. Last month, The Daily Texan reported on new rules around work authorizations. International students can no longer apply for off-campus internships unless they are required to complete their degree. Ellie, you spoke with Professor Steglich, the co-director of the UT School of Law Immigration Clinic. What did she say about how these changes could impact international enrollment at UT moving forward?
Symons: Yeah. So, over the summer before the decision, like, delayed it indefinitely said that the change will shift the authority of universities from being able to support and direct international students to DHS. And she said that the change might prevent international students from graduating due to the limit.
Even though they can apply for an extension, she was basically saying that it would make it more difficult for them. So she said it would impact higher education and UT in general from being able to attract international students just in general with the United States. And then she was talking about the reduction for the travel period from 60 to 30 days.
And she said that it could impact students differently depending on their program for graduate students or their major, um, based on their ability to find a job. So basically how long that they’re going to be able to stay in the U.S. before obtaining a job can really change things depending on what people are studying.
Doat: And you cowrote both pieces. Why did the news editor assign two reporters to this story?
Symons: I think it just has a lot to do with how complicated these topics are. I mean, I know even me talking about it right now, um, it’s hard to get people to talk to you because they’re really afraid. And I know my last story with Emily, she was amazing at being able to talk to international students. But it’s so hard to find people that will talk to you, and everyone that we talked to wanted to remain anonymous. It was challenging, um, in terms of obtaining all the information, making it digestible and also being able to talk to people because it’s a really sensitive topic for them.
Doat: And it keeps changing all the time as we can see with this new policy. Whom can international students reach out to for more information or support?
Symons: Well, they can certainly reach out to Texas Global, um, and they update their website but, I mean, they can talk to law clinics as well. There’s so many resources if you google ‘international student help,’ but Texas Global is the main one at UT.
Doat: Thank you Ellie Symons for being here today, it was very nice having you.
Symons: Thank you so much for having me.
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Doat: This interview is a production of The Daily Texan Audio Department. If you like this episode, make sure to subscribe to The Daily Texan on your streaming platform of choice. To listen to more podcasts, or read Ellie’s stories, head on over to www.thedailytexan.com. Thank you so much for listening.
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