President Donald Trump’s government is planning to bar Kenyan students from pursuing degrees in the US through limiting their stay in the country.
The move which is contained in proposals by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will see Kenyan students barred from getting student visas longer than two years.
This means that the students will be unable to pursue education in American universities where degrees and other certifications take about four years of study.
“If DHS’s new proposed rule goes through, international students from countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Vietnam, and the Philippines would be effectively banned from getting four-year degrees in the US,” US Immigration lawyer Aaron Reinchlin-Melnick, who is a Policy Analyst at the American Immigration Council, warns.
According to the new DHS proposal, students from countries on the State Sponsor of Terrorism List (Iran, Syria, Sudan and Northern Korea) and citizens of countries with over 10 per cent overstay rate will be limited to the two-year student visa.
“Most of those countries would be subject to restrictions because of the “10 per cent visa overstay” threshold,” Mr Reinchlin-Melnick tweeted.
Majority of the affected countries are located in Africa and others in war-torn countries in Asia. The list seems to avoid countries dominated by white people, especially in Europe.
Other than Kenya, students from countries such as Afghanistan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, DRC Congo, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Guinea-Bissau and Guyana are affected.
Others are Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda and Samoa. The rest are Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen and Zambia.
Although Kenyan students would be able to ask DHS for an extension of their visas past two years, those extensions will not be guaranteed.
In its explanation, the Department says that its intention is to fix a major problem on students overstaying their welcome in the US.
But an analysis of the Department of Homeland Security points that only 32,023 people were suspected of overstaying a student /exchange visa last year.
Whereas the Trump government argues that the rule to restrict some countries is based on the percentage of students who overstayed, countries with the highest number of overstays like China, India, Brazil and Canada are not included in the punitive list.
As of last year, the number of Kenyans enrolled in US higher-education institutions rose by nearly four per cent compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 3,451 students.
