While the US president lurches from one shit storm to the next, his mouth a fount of filth and lies, his mind a roiling cauldron of chaos, and The White House in a perennial state of (crazy) crisis, there are some nameless yet busy little beavers working in the trenches of the vast federal bureaucracy in DC carrying out the Supreme Leader’s anti-foreign, anti-international, anti-US MAGA agenda with a vengeance.  

The policy proposals trickling out of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the Department of Homeland Security, remind me of water torture – not to be confused with waterboarding, made (more) infamous by the Bush/Cheney administration.  The former is a form of torture in which the victim is exposed to the incessant dripping of water on the head or to the sound of dripping.   

Are those heartfelt expressions of gratitude I hear coming from other countries that host large numbers of Vietnamese and other international students?  Canada says THANK YOU, Australia says THANK YOU, etc., ad nauseam.  Sadly, I don’t see anyone or any entity with any appreciable influence jamming their transmission.  DC continues to burn and no one’s called 911 yet.  (Maybe the new Congress in 2019?)

Here are the latest proposed changes:  

1. Fixed Maximum Terms for Student Visas
2. Proposed Change to Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility

What’s next, eliminate the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program because it takes jobs away from ‘Muricans? Shut down the H1B work visa program for the same reason?  While they’re at it, why not just throw the baby out with the bathwater and shove a dagger in the heart of the EB-5 program, which has brought in billions of dollars in low-interest money for a variety of construction projects?  

Each proposal, some more damaging than others, creates yet another disincentive to study in the US or even visit the country as a tourist or businessperson, not to mention other “negatives” like the latest mass shooting du jour.  Each that relates somehow to the F-1 is just more chipping away at the edifice that is study in the USA.  It reminds me of the expression No matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.   

The fat lady hasn’t sung yet – not by a long shot.  Look forward to more drip, drip, drip, drip.  Sorry I don’t have more upbeat news to share with you, dear reader, but the truth trumps spin any day of the week and twice on Sunday.