Capping student visas injects chaos into a system that has worked fine for decades. Graduate programs in science and tech routinely take longer than four years, and forcing students to beg the federal government for extensions just piles on bureaucracy. These rules create a problem.
For nearly 50 years, the duration-of-status loophole let foreign students stay in the U.S. virtually forever with zero federal oversight, and corporations exploited programs like OPT to undercut American workers with cheap foreign labor while dodging payroll taxes. Fixing this isn't bureaucracy — it's basic accountability. Mandatory vetting and fixed admission caps are exactly what a serious immigration system looks like.
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.
All rights reserved.
Version 7.4.1