Amid reports that 1.1 million foreign students were enrolled in American universities between 2023-2024, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville introduced legislation he believes will put American schools back on track serving American students.
The Student Visa Integrity Act, Tuberville’s bill, would ban students from adversarial countries, such as China and Iran, from studying in the United States.
“I was recently shocked to learn how many students from hostile countries like Ch
“We need to go on offense against countries who hate us and are desperate to try to take us down—as we saw with the violent, anti-American protests on our college campuses over the past few months.”
“There is zero reason why we should be allowing students from countries that hate us to take the spot of a law-abiding American citizen at our elite colleges and universities. I’m proud to introduce the Student Visa Integrity Act to crack down on rampant abuse of student visas and to make our American Universities Prioritize Americans Again.”
Tuberville spoke about the importance of the legislation during an appearance on Fox News’ Mornings with Maria.
There are more than 1.5 MILLION foreign national students at American universities.
There is ZERO reason why Chinese and Iranian students should be stealing opportunities from LAW-ABIDING AMERICANS who want to go to college.
I’m proud to introduce the Student Visa Integrity Act… pic.twitter.com/YZFuUgW33p
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) July 31, 2025
“In the Northeast, 40 to 70% of the university enrollment is foreign nationals,” he said. “This is ridiculous. It’s getting out of control. We have to do something about this. We have to wake up and smell the roses here because we are funding the ending of our country. All these Chinese nationals come over here. Now, they’ll leave their visa on time and they’ll go back home, but they take everything they possibly can with them in terms of anything they learn.”
The senator also appeared on Fox Business and discussed the impact that the enrollment of foreign students has on American-born students.
Tuberville calls for banning people from China, Iran, and North Korea from studying in the US pic.twitter.com/dOw1GJF6Rr
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2025
“They are turned down,” Tuberville said. “They apply, but they can’t get in because there are no slots for them due to all of the foreign nationals coming in,” Tuberville said. “We’ll have that in our bill, by the way. That’s already in there. We want to make sure we limit the number that comes, but we would surely want to limit our adversaries.”
“We want to do away with Iran, North Koreans, and Chinese nationals getting into this and learning how to destroy the United States of America and our allies.”
RELATED: Tuberville: ‘We’re not running daycare centers on our college campuses’
The Student Visa Integrity Act also requires that foreign students have a definitive end date to prevent visa overstays and also requires in-person interviews for some foreign students
Recent data shows that approximately 1.5 million international students are studying in the United States using F-1 or M-1 visas, which is more than DOUBLE the amount in 2012. Data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security also showed that during Fiscal Year 2023, an estimated 50,000 student or exchange visitor visa holders overstayed the completion of their program.
Austen Shipley is the News Director for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten
