This business with the foreign students is … bizarre.
The administration says it wants to "Make America Great Again". One of the things that has made us great is our unparalleled post-secondary education. The US is #1 with a bullet in this. One of the main reasons is that we have large numbers of smart young people come here from all over the world for their advanced education and then decide to stay because we have the best facilities and opportunities for them. That makes our economy stronger, largely by increasing the number of scientists and engineers of all kinds we have to do the work.
This policy runs directly in the opposite direction. Further, it neglects the increasing competition US universities and colleges face from the UK, Canada (a lot from them), Australia (welcome Asians!), and the continental European universities. The quality of post-secondary education has been increasing everywhere and where quality was already high (think Ecole Polytechnique) the capacity of the institutions has increased as well. Now we are telling young people from foreign climes that they might as well see their education elsewhere. And, given the way humans build networks, that they should stay in the countries where they were educated, bestowing the benefits of what they learned and what they will discover there instead of here.
I don't think this is anything but a reflection of an insane policy to open up opportunities for young Americans to go into STEM studies. That won't work. We are already producing about our limit in STEM degrees going to US students; it has never been a popular choice for American students and opening more slots (if that happens) won't change that. It's worth remembering that the US is a major science power today not because of a native bent for scientific study, but because Hitler and Mussolini forced the core of their scientific communities to come here. Now we are at the brink of inaugurating policies that will forfit that advantage. I mean you can't make up something this stupid.