Sahab Masoumian, a 22-year-old engineering student at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif., hasn't been able to think of anything but President Donald Trump’s ban on visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries since his academic term began on Monday. "If I tell you I'm not fearful, I'd be lying. I'm scared," he said.
Masoumian was born in Tehran, Iran, and lived in Turkey for about one year while his family sought asylum in the U.S. Now a permanent resident, Masoumian hopes to transfer to California State Polytechnic University-Pomona and take up aerospace engineering. He dreams of landing a job at Boeing Co., the world’s largest plane maker. But since Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, Masoumian has been questioning whether he wants to remain in the U.S. after he graduates college.
It's the opposite of what Republican Party leaders used to hope for. Mitt Romney in 2012 said he wanted to "staple a green card" to every foreign recipient of an advanced degree.
“These are very financially desirable students,” said Robert Kelchen, an assistant professor of higher education at Seton Hall University. “These tend to be people who earn quite a bit of money, come up with new innovations, and they tend to pay a lot of taxes."
U.S. colleges stand to lose as much as $700 million in annual revenue if Trump’s ban on visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen becomes permanent, according to estimates by College Factual, a higher education research website. University presidents fear the policy could imperil the U.S.'s standing as the top destination for the world's smartest students. In addition to hurting university bottom lines, disrupting the talent pipeline in such a way could curb economic growth, they said.
Read more at Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-31/trump-s-immigration-ban-could-cost-u-s-colleges-700-million