DHS confirms ‘absolutely staggering’ number of Chinese nationals at U.S. colleges
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin condemned American universities on Fox Business Thursday for what she called their “complicity” in Chinese Communist Party espionage.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday the State Department will begin aggressively revoking visas held by Chinese students, citing national security concerns. During an appearance on “The Evening Edit,” McLaughlin highlighted that more than 277,000 Chinese nationals were enrolled in U.S. colleges, while only 800 American students were studying in China.
“I found this statistic to be absolutely staggering. In the academic year 2024, there were 277,000 Chinese nationals who were studying here at academic institutions here in the United States. On the other hand, there were only 800 Americans who were studying at universities over in China. That’s pretty staggering, and the reason is because the Chinese Communist Party, for decades and decades with impunity, have been exploiting U.S. visa systems and other programs that we’ve been using with academic institutions,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin praised Rubio, alongside President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, for taking action.
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“They’ve been doing it to advance the Communist Chinese Party. They’ve been doing it to advance espionage and steal our intellectual property. Thank God we finally have President Donald Trump and Secretary Rubio and Secretary Kristi Noem, who actually put Americans first and recognized that we have a real national security crisis on our hands,” McLaughlin added. “And we should finally be putting American students first.”
McLaughlin also discussed recent reports of antisemitism on college campuses, with the spokeswoman citing an internal Harvard study saying that six out of 10 Jewish students reported facing discrimination.
“60% of Jewish students on Harvard’s campus faced antisemitism. This campus has fostered violence, not just to Jewish students, but all students. They’ve also fostered a cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party. They, in fact, facilitated training exercises with a group that was involved in the Uyghur genocide,” McLaughlin said.
“So what Harvard has been doing is pro-terrorism, anti-American, and we shouldn’t be using U.S. taxpayer dollars to be funding this type of anti-American activity. These kind of programs, these kind of visas, are a cash cow for Harvard, and we shouldn’t be promoting anti-Americanism at our own dollars,” McLaughlin said.
The State Department temporarily paused visa interview appointments for international students as it develops new procedures to examine applicants’ social media profiles. This move marks another step in President Donald Trump’s broader push to tighten immigration policies, following his recent call for Harvard University to limit its foreign student enrollment to 15%, down from more than 25% currently.
The Trump administration is embroiled in a legal dispute with Harvard University after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked the school’s ability to enroll international students on Thursday. In response, Harvard filed a lawsuit, prompting a federal district judge to issue a temporary restraining order on Friday, temporarily blocking the DHS action.
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