By Giselle Lee | Staff Writer
With heavy visa restrictions imposed on international students, the process of studying in the U.S. can be challenging. But more uncertainty looms for students who hope to work in the U.S. after graduating.
On Feb. 10, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, representing Florida’s congressional District 17, introduced the Ending Exploitative Imported Labor Exemptions Act (EXILE Act). The proposed bill would reduce the number of H-1B visas to zero at the beginning of the financial year 2027 and for every subsequent year.
Steube said the bill was put forward to protect “workers and young people continue to be displaced and disenfranchised by the H-1B visa program.”
Professor Frank Enriquez, a lecturer in the political science department, explained that H-1B visas allow people from other countries to temporarily come to the United States with a specific purpose, typically employment. The three-year visa is only renewable once.
“The purpose is to attract the best talent across the world and bring it to the United States,” Enriquez said. “Whether you’re a student looking to hopefully get an H-1B visa and then become a U.S. citizen, and your employer would sponsor you for that, or you’re someone in the middle of your career and you also want to achieve citizenship or working in an American company of some sort.”
Enriquez said the elimination of the H-1B visa program may benefit local talents in filling a “vacuum” that may occur, but forcing international students out of the U.S. could pose a geopolitical risk beyond the low enrollment rates of foreign nationals in American universities.
“You’re going to lose a lot of people from across the globe who want to invest their talents in American companies, and now you’re going to keep that talent in their home countries,” Enriquez said. “All that talent is going to go back home, whether it’s from China or Latin America or even Europe, wherever they’re coming from, it’s going to go back home and stay there.”
Dr. Patrick Flavin, chair of the political science department, said that increasing uncertainty makes future careers “tougher to plan out” for international students.
“How do you know if the policy is going to change tomorrow, or the next week, or the next year?” Flavin said. “If so, that is going to make it less enticing to stay and study here in the United States, as the opportunity after graduating and working here is either pretty expensive or not possible, depending on whether the program is eliminated.”
Despite that, Flavin remained optimistic for Baylor’s international students and commended the university for “paying more attention” to global intake. Baylor experienced an increase in international students during the 2025-2026 academic year amidst student visa restrictions, a stark contrast to other universities in the US.
“Baylor has done a very effective job in terms of the international students’ office here and the global engagement office in fighting the headwinds,” Flavin said. “I think the classroom and the student experience greatly benefit from having a wide array of viewpoints for a personal standpoint for the driving students who are from another country besides the United States, and then bringing their background and their viewpoints.”
While international students’ futures in the U.S. remain unpredictable, Enriquez advised students to “think ahead of time” and work hard while studying in the U.S.
“Be very clear and deliberative about the career path you want to go down,” Enriquez said. “If you know exactly what you want to do, it gives you those four years to become the best version of yourself and the best potential candidate for an H-1B visa.”
