Federal Immigration Policy and Higher Education: The Impact on Students, Institutions, and the Greater Philadelphia Talent Pipeline

Posted by Economy League Greater Philadelphia on May 26, 2026

Our latest Leading Indicators brief examines how recent federal immigration policy changes are reshaping international student access, institutional financing, and long term workforce pipelines across Greater Philadelphia. Pennsylvania is home to more than 50,500 international students, making these shifts especially significant for the region’s higher education and innovation economy.

While Public Law 119-21 (aka “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act”) reshapes how students finance higher education in the United State, a parallel and equally consequential set of federal actions is also reshaping who is permitted to study, research, and work in the country. Since January 2025, the administration has issued a cascade of executive orders, proclamations, regulatory proposals, and enforcement actions affecting international students and scholars: a $100,000 H-1B visa fee imposed by a presidential proclamation; travel bans now covering 39 countries as of January 1, 2026; a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposal to end “duration of status” and replace it with fixed periods of stay not to exceed four years; a final H-1B weighted-lottery rule; mass SEVIS terminations affecting thousands of F-1 visa students in spring 2025; and a USCIS “hold and review” memorandum freezing pending benefit applications from nationals of the 39 affected countries.

These changes do not target higher education explicitly, but the sector is among those most exposed. According to NAFSA, international students contributed roughly $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023–24 and account for nearly half of STEM master’s and doctoral degrees awarded in the United States. Pennsylvania hosts more than 50,500 international students — the sixth-highest total of any U.S. state — and Greater Philadelphia is home to one of the densest concentrations of internationally enrolled students in the country.

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