Trump’s immigration policy could affect chemistry students and workers

Immigration was a major focus of Donald J. Trump’s first presidential term, during which his administration issued over 400 immigration-related actions. A number of those policies directly affected science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students and researchers who study and work in the US on temporary visas.

Many of these students and researchers are now worried about another raft of immigration policy changes when Trump takes office again on Jan. 20.

As an indication of their level of concern, several universities are recommending that students on temporary visas who are traveling abroad return to campus before Inauguration Day. The expectation is that any immigration- related executive orders “will be enacted pretty quickly after that,” says Christina Yao, a professor at the University of South Carolina who studies the mobility of international students.

Most analysts anticipate that the second Trump administration will try to reinstate a lot of the executive actions issued during Trump’s first term, a prediction that aligns with a February 2024 statement by the Trump campaign.

Most of Trump’s actions on immigration were blocked by federal courts or later overturned by Joe Biden’s administration.

Many of these policies would directly affect students on temporary visas. Roughly one-third of STEM master’s and doctoral degrees awarded by US institutions went to these students in 2021. According to a report by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a collective of US college and university leaders, the incoming administration’s immigration priorities might include implementing country-specific travel bans, shortening the duration of student visas, and attempting to reduce how long students are permitted to work in the US after graduation.

Although several of Trump’s policies are expected to be hard on students with temporary visas, the president-elect has also floated the idea of giving permanent resident cards, or green cards, to them when they graduate college. Trump hasn’t detailed how his administration would implement this plan, but it would come with an “aggressive vetting process,” Karoline Leavitt, his campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement following the announcement of the plan.

Meanwhile, Trump’s immigration policies could also affect working chemists. The second Trump administration could limit access to H-1B visas, which help fill employment gaps in many STEM industries, according to the American Immigration Council. The administration could also prevent spouses of H-1B visa holders from working in the US.

Lei Yu, a computational chemist at the biotech firm Pinnacle Medicines, says he is also worried about the possibility of increased visa-processing time and denial rates. As a result, he’s having second thoughts about his plans to travel back home to China, despite not having visited since 2019.

To return to the US, Yu would first need to go through the lengthy process of getting his H-1B visa stamp from a US embassy or consulate in his home country. If the process goes on too long, it could affect his employment status.

Similarly, Paulette Vincent-Ruz, a professor of chemistry education at New Mexico State University, wonders whether it’s going to be harder for her to get her green card, which she applied for 2 years ago. “Many of us are afraid that he’s just going to wake up one day and say that all the processes are frozen,” she says of Trump. “I don’t know if people understand how much that can impact [our ability] to do science.”

Changes to US immigration policy could also make it more difficult for researchers from outside the US to live and work in the country. Sam Lau, a principal investigator at a university in China who is thinking about working in the US, is afraid that the incoming administration will limit the number of visas for Chinese researchers.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said he would “impose whatever visa sanctions and travel restrictions are necessary to shut off Chinese access to American secrets.” And in 2020, he barred Chinese graduate students and visiting researchers affiliated with certain Chinese universities from entering the US.

Deterring international scholars from coming to the US could have big implications for STEM research, the University of South Carolina’s Yao says. “Alongside our domestic talent, we also need the global talent to be here working together.”