A Republican lawmaker has proposed a bill that would force colleges and universities to send the names and details of every non-U.S. citizen enrolled or working there to the federal government.
Bill Requires Expanded Reporting to SEVIS
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas introduced the Educational Visa Transparency Act. The measure targets schools that get federal money.
As reported by Newsweek on Wednesday March 25th, the bill requires them to send information on all international students, faculty members and administrators to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, known as SEVIS.
The Department of Homeland Security runs SEVIS to keep records on foreign students in the United States, most of whom enter on F-1 student visas.
Under the bill, universities must file the first reports within 60 days after the law takes effect. After that, they must update the information within 30 days of every new academic registration period.
Officials from the Departments of Education, Justice, Homeland Security and State would gain access to the data for checks and enforcement.
Also Read: Trump Admin Uses $200,000 in Taxpayer Money to Warn Illegal Immigrants of Severe Consequences
The bill changes parts of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act to widen the current SEVIS rules for higher education. It has been read twice in the Senate.
“Unmonitored foreign nationals in the labs and research centers of our colleges and universities pose a grave national security threat. My bill will require tracking all student and faculty visas to ensure foreign nationals aren’t stealing valuable research,” Cotton said in a news release on Tuesday.
Crackdown Includes Visa Revocations and Security Cases
The proposal fits with steps already taken by the Trump administration on visas. Pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. college campuses in 2024 and 2025 triggered visa cancellations for people who backed or joined the events.
Since President Donald Trump took office again in January 2025, the State Department has canceled more than 100,000 visas. That total includes about 8,000 student visas.
“The State Department has now revoked over 100,000 visas, including some 8,000 student visas and 2,500 specialized visas for individuals who had encounters with U.S. law enforcement for criminal activity. We will continue to deport these thugs to keep America safe,” the department wrote on social media on January 12.
The administration has also stopped issuing U.S. visas to citizens of 75 countries. In separate cases, foreign nationals on J-1 visas faced charges for trying to bring biological materials into the country without approval.
In December, FBI Director Kash Patel said a Chinese researcher named Youhuang Xiang was accused of attempting to bring Escherichia coli bacteria into the United States without permission.
In November, three Chinese nationals: Xu Bai, Fengfan Zhang and Zhiyong Zhang were charged in Michigan. They allegedly tried to smuggle biological materials while doing research at the University of Michigan.
In February, Russian-born scientist Kseniia Petrova, who worked at Harvard University, was held at Boston Logan International Airport after she allegedly carried frog embryos without declaring them.
Her lawyer said the samples came from Paris for Harvard research and that Petrova did not know they needed to be declared. A federal judge later ordered her release.
Americans React on Social Media
Reactions from Americans on X were mixed and often sharp. One user wrote, “Illegal is illegal. No one is above the law, right?” Another called the bill “idiotic.” Several compared it to practices in Communist China or Nazi Germany, with comments such as “This mass surveillance smacks of something Communist China would do” and “Straight up Nazi shit.”
Others questioned the need for new tracking, asking why the government does not already know who holds visas or raising concerns about data breaches and who would have access.
Why This Matters
The bill would add every non-U.S. citizen at a funded university to a federal tracking list already used for student visas. It arrives while the government has canceled tens of thousands of visas and faced cases of biological materials brought in by people on exchange visas.
The changes aim to give federal agencies quicker and fuller data on who is at campuses and what they do, so rules on immigration and research can be enforced without delay.
