Washington, D.C. — A new report from the Center for American Progress warns that the Trump administration’s policies targeting legal immigration actively undermine the nation’s economic competitiveness and jeopardize our long-standing role as the world’s leading innovation hub, particularly in the critical fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and artificial intelligence (AI).
The United States has become the global leader in innovation in large part because of its unparalleled ability to attract rich and diverse talent from across the world. This innovation has fueled economic growth and created a stronger workforce, but the administration’s shortsighted anti-immigration policies, along with devastating cuts to research funding, risk undoing that progress. By fostering a hostile environment for international students, researchers, and highly skilled workers, President Donald Trump is pushing essential talent away from the United States and toward global competitors such as China.
The report uncovers several key insights into the growing erosion of U.S. innovation:
- Targeting students and researchers: The administration’s unprecedented actions include the revocation of more than 6,000 student visas, detention of international students, and demands for confidential student data from universities—sending a chilling signal to prospective innovators worldwide that they are not welcome here.
- Economic consequences: Decreasing foreign student enrollment could lead to a loss of an estimated $7 billion and more than 60,000 jobs.
- Sabotaging avenues to legally work in the United States: The administration has stated its intent to end the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, a pathway that has existed in some form since 1947, allowing foreign graduates of U.S. universities to gain work experience in the United States. Ending OPT would make the nation a drastically less attractive destination for top global talent. The administration has also initiated a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas that punishes small businesses and could hurt access to physicians in rural communities.
- Ceding ground to competitors: Our competitors are moving aggressively to attract talent we push away by actively seeking to recruit international students from the United States and increasing investments to lure researchers affected by U.S. policy changes.
- AI leadership at risk: The administration’s hostile actions to legal immigration—including undoing efforts to strengthen immigration pathways and allowing visa backlogs to surge—undermine the country’s ability to stay competitive in AI, a sector facing a significant U.S. worker shortage. An estimated 60 percent of the top U.S.-based AI companies were founded or co-founded by immigrants, underscoring the vital role foreign-born talent plays in driving cutting-edge sectors.
“The United States needs constructive immigration policies that strengthen our economy and increase our competitive advantage, not destructive actions that harm our global leadership,” said Ben Greenho, policy analyst for Immigration Policy at CAP and co-author of the report. “We know that immigrant success is intrinsic to the American economy. It’s counterproductive and economically damaging to create a hostile environment for these highly qualified workers who could launch the next breakthroughs and create jobs for Americans. Instead of attacking legal immigration and hurting American innovation, the Trump administration should work constructively with Congress to modernize our legal immigration system to welcome the brightest minds and secure America’s long-term economic future.”
Read the report: “The Trump Administration’s Hostility to Legal immigration Harms America’s Global Leadership in Innovation” by Ben Greenho, Silva Mathema, Rosa Barrientos-Ferrer, and Debu Gandhi
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For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Rafael Medina at [email protected].