Geo News/Reuters

US alleges admissions practices at George Washington University favoured Black, Hispanic applicants

• Some varsities pause certain work authorisation applications.
• UC Berkeley says memo “more narrow in focus, more direct”.
• Rights groups raise academic freedom, due process concerns.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration has issued a memo for universities that seeks to restrict issuance of certain internship work authorisations for international students as the federal government warned that colleges not complying with the regulations may lose certification to enroll foreign students.

The federal memo dated August 24 said the Student and Exchange Visitor Programme, which is part of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, has “observed a rise in Curricular Practical Training (CPT) authorisations that appear to violate regulatory requirements which permit CPT only where the training is an integral part of an established curriculum.”

“Failure to comply with SEVP regulations may result in an institution losing certification to enroll foreign students,” the memo said.

It resulted in some schools, including the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Berkeley, pausing certain applications for work authorisations for international students.

“UCLA has paused certain Curricular Practical Training authorisations while it reviews recent federal guidance and determines next steps,” a UCLA spokesperson said.

UC Berkeley’s international office said the August 24 memo was “more narrow in focus, more direct, and includes content that is more restrictive in nature.” The federal government had also issued an earlier memo in mid-August.

The UC Berkeley international office said it is extending the pause for certain work authorisations for international students for “the foreseeable future.” It said it will continue processing “degree-requirement” CPT as normal and would resume processing “Doctoral Dissertation and Master’s Thesis Research CPT.”

The office said it would consult with legal experts to develop new processes that align with new federal requirements.

“Nothing about these regulations has changed,” the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent, said in a statement. “However, schools and employers should consider themselves on notice: under President Trump, abuse of this generous system will no longer be tolerated.”

Trump has targeted universities with probes and funding threats over issues like pro-Palestinian protests against US ally Israel’s assault on Gaza, diversity initiatives, climate programmes and transgender policies.

Rights advocates have raised free speech, academic freedom and due process concerns.

Separately, the US Justice Department alleged on Thursday admissions practices at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Services favoured Black and Hispanic applicants, citing findings of a probe as the Trump administration continued its diversity crackdown.

“We are disappointed by the DOJ’s conclusions, which we believe are incorrect,” the university said, saying the admissions policies were in compliance with law and not discriminatory.

The Justice Department has alleged similar bias at other schools, saying the department aims for settlement talks. If those efforts fail, the department will file suit, it said.

Trump’s administration has also revoked visas of student protesters over pro-Palestinian protests that it casts as antisemitic and sympathetic to extremists.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say opposition to Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories is not antisemitic and advocacy for Palestinian rights is not the same as supporting extremism.

1- Header image: Prospective students tour the University of California, Berkeley campus before beginning of the new semester, in Berkeley, California, US, June 8, 2023. — Reuters

Courtesy: Geo News/Reuters

US State Department says visa appointments adjusted due to training initiative

• Trump has pursued aggressive immigration crackdown.
•  State Department did not specify details on training.
• Trump’s crackdown has faced some legal setbacks.

President Donald Trump’s administration has issued a pause on visa appointments for applicants around the world during an ongoing immigration crackdown by the US government in the Republican leader’s second term in the White House.

A US State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday that it launched a global training initiative at all US embassies and consulates worldwide and that appointments for visa services will be adjusted to accommodate the training.

Trump has pursued an aggressive deportation drive and immigration crackdown that includes revocations of visas and green cards and rejection of applications over a range of reasons like political opinions and pro-Palestinian protests against US ally Israel’s assault on Gaza.

He says the crackdown aims to improve domestic security.

The crackdown has faced some legal setbacks. A US judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to ​applicants from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of ‌State Marco Rubio’s statutory authority.

The State Department did not specify details on the training and its timeline, beyond saying the training aimed to help consular officers screen out applicants deemed likely to become dependent on US public benefits and to ensure evaluation of visa applicants “comprehensively and consistently.”

The pause on visa appointments was reported earlier by the Financial Times, which said immigrant visa applicants with scheduled interviews at US embassies and consulates have received emails that their appointments were being rescheduled and that they would receive future notice of a new date.

Trump’s immigration crackdown has been widely condemned by human rights groups as being discriminatory and in violation of free speech and due process rights. Rights groups also say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment in the US, especially for ethnic minorities who have raised concerns about racial profiling.

While Trump campaigned in 2024 on a ​platform of stopping illegal immigration, his administration has also made legal immigration more difficult — for example, by imposing new and expensive ​fees for applicants of certain work visas.

1- Header image: US President Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 7, 2025. — Reuters

Courtesy: Geo News/Reuters

The rule that imposes a fee on highly skilled workers could be finalised by end of the year

• Proposed rule to extend fee imposed by Trump last year.
• Administration appealing judge’s ruling that fee is unlawful.
• DHS proposes $103,265 fee on new H-1B visas.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday released a proposed regulation to codify an unprecedented more than $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers that Trump first imposed last year but has been blocked by the courts.

The fee first imposed by Trump in a temporary proclamation last year vastly raises the cost of the visas that are heavily relied on in the tech, education and research sectors.

A federal judge in June ruled that the fee was illegal and blocked the Trump administration from collecting it. A Boston-based appeals court is reviewing that decision while a different court considers whether a judge in Washington, DC, properly rejected a challenge to the fee by a major business group.

Trump’s 2025 proclamation imposing the fee expires in September, one year after it was issued, but it directed the US Department of Homeland Security to adopt regulations making it permanent.

The proposed $103,265 fee by DHS, posted online in the Federal Register on Monday to be formally published on Tuesday, kicks off a 30-day public comment period. The rule could be finalised by the end of the year.

The H-1B programme allows US employers to hire foreign workers with training in speciality fields and offers 65,000 visas annually, with another 20,000 for workers with advanced degrees, approved for three to six years.

The order Trump issued last year sharply increased the cost of obtaining some H-1B visas, which had typically come with about $2,000 to $5,000 in fees, depending on various factors.

Debate over visa programme

Trump, a Republican, and other critics of the H-1B programme say it is abused by many companies that replace American workers with cheaper foreign labour. But business groups and many individual companies have said the visa programme is needed to address a lack of qualified American workers for some jobs and to allow US businesses to recruit top talent.

About 70 employers had paid the $100,000 fee on a total of 85 visa applications as of late February, according to court filings.

In imposing the fee, Trump invoked the president’s power under federal immigration law to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals who would be detrimental to US interests.

The fee is being challenged by the US Chamber of Commerce, the largest US business lobbying group, Democratic-led states and a coalition of unions and employers. Those lawsuits could be amended to challenge the rule proposed this week once it is finalised.

Legal challenges mount

The lawsuits claim that Trump’s power to restrict entry does not allow him to override the law that created the H-1B visa programme. The states and groups that sued also say that the Homeland Security Department cannot impose fees, taxes, or other means to generate revenue for the United States without permission from Congress.

The Trump administration has maintained that the fee is not a traditional tax and that courts have little power to question the president’s authority to restrict entry into the country.

Amid Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, employers last year registered for about 344,000 H-1B visas, down more than 25% from 2024 and fewer than half of the 794,000 visas sought in 2023, according to data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Trump administration has also ordered enhanced vetting of H-1B applicants and proposed a new visa selection process that would favor higher-skilled and better-paid workers. Earlier in August, the Department of Homeland Security, in a separate rule, added fees of up to $4,500 to applications to extend the stay of H-1B workers or to transfer employees based in other countries to the United States.

1- Header image: US flag, mock passport, 100 dollar banknote and H-1B visa application form are seen in this illustration taken on September 26, 2025.— Reuters

Courtesy: Dawn News/Reuters

US President Donald Trump’s administration plans to crack down on networks it says help pregnant women lie on visa applications in order to secure US citizenship for their US-born babies, an issue that Trump has highlighted to justify his attempts to restrict birthright citizenship.

In an internal email sent on Thursday and reviewed by Reuters, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered investigative agents around the country to focus on a new Birth Tourism Initiative.

The operation will seek to root out networks that help pregnant foreign nationals come to the US to give birth so their children can receive citizenship, it said.

Trump, a Republican, has kicked off an aggressive push to reduce both legal and illegal immigration after taking office in January 2025. His administration has used the threat of birth tourism as a rationale for attempting to restrict the practice of granting automatic citizenship to children born on US soil.

“Uninhibited birth tourism poses a tremendous cost to taxpayers and threatens our national security,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement, adding that most nations do not provide automatic citizenship at birth.

The US Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on any ongoing investigations, but said it was aware that some networks facilitate travel to the US for birth tourism.

“While the act of giving birth in the United States is not unlawful, DHS remains focused on identifying and addressing potential violations of federal law associated with these activities,” a spokesperson said.

No US law outright bars birth tourism, but a federal regulation implemented in 2020 during Trump’s first term prohibits using temporary tourist and business visas for the primary purpose of obtaining US citizenship for a newborn.

People who engage in birth tourism schemes could be prosecuted for fraud or other related crimes.

Birth tourism used as rationale to limit citizenship

There are no official figures tallying the number of foreigners who come to the US for the explicit purpose of giving birth and obtaining citizenship for their children, or the cost to taxpayers.

The Centre for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration, estimated in an analysis in 2020 that between 20,000-25,000 mothers came to the US for birth tourism in a year-long period between 2016-2017. There were 3.6 million births in the US in 2025, and birth tourism likely represents a fraction of total births.

Republicans have highlighted allegations of birth tourism as a reason to limit access to US citizenship, which has long been conferred at birth under an amendment to the Constitution.

Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office that instructed US agencies not to recognise the citizenship of children born in the US if neither parent is an American citizen or legal permanent resident, a sharp break from legal precedent spanning more than a century.

Multiple federal judges blocked the order, sending the case to the Supreme Court for oral arguments last week. US Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the Trump administration, said automatic citizenship had encouraged a sprawling industry of birth tourism.

Sauer said the promise of citizenship for those born in the US had encouraged thousands of people from potentially hostile nations to come to give birth, creating a whole generation of American citizens abroad with no meaningful ties to the United States.

ICE aims to find fraud

ICE’s new birth tourism effort — spearheaded by its Homeland Security Investigations arm — aims to surface cases of fraud, but it is unclear how many cases they might find.

HSI is advancing efforts to protect the integrity of US immigration and identification systems, specifically targeting fraudulent activities associated with birth tourism schemes, the email said.

The agency said it would seek to disrupt fraud, financial crimes, and organised facilitation networks that exploit lawful immigration processes. In one federal case in 2019, more than a dozen people were charged in a scheme to operate birth houses in Southern California that catered to wealthy women from China.

In the case — billed by ICE at the time as the first US prosecution against birth tourism — Chinese national Dongyuan Li pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the scheme. She was sentenced to 10 months in prison and released in December 2019.

Another Chinese national, Chao Edwin Chen, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2020 but had already fled the US for China, according to ICE.

1- Header image: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detain a man after conducting a raid at the Cedar Run apartment complex in Denver, Colorado, US, February 5, 2025. — Reuters/File

Courtesy: Dawn News

• ‘Cooperation’ with UK authorities has kept Islamabad off visa ban list so far
• Rejection rate of asylum claims by Pakistanis at 70pc, but very few deportations
• Shadow home secy pushes for tougher measures

LONDON: As the UK bans visas to a handful of countries that have high asylum cases, Pakistan has come under renewed scrutiny after questions were raised about the low number of deportations.

The development comes days­ after the UK put an ‘emergency brake’ on visas for the first time on nationals from four countries following a surge in asylum claims from legal routes. In a move described as “unprecedented” by the government, the Home Office will end sponso­red study visas for all nationals of Afghanistan, Cam­eroon, Myanmar and Sudan and also end skilled wor­ker visas for Afghan nationals.

Earlier this week, a journalist asked UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood why Pakistan had not yet been targeted by proposed visa restrictions, noting that the country accounted for the largest share of people who entered Britain on legal visas and later applied for asylum.

The question also highlig­hted the low return rate of reje­cted Pakistani asylum seekers.

“This is not the end of the action we will take,” Mahmood said in response. “This is the beginning and not the end of the action we will take in this area.”

However, she declined to comment on whether discussions were underway with other countries regarding possible visa sanctions.

Pakistan ‘cooperating’

Sources on both the Pakistan and British government sides told Dawn that although Islamabad was cooperating with the UK authorities on the repatriation of rejected asylum seekers, the number of Pakistanis on student visas who later sought asylum was very high, prompting alarm from the UK government.

They added that discussions were ongoing between the two sides and that Pakistan’s cooperation mighty be the reason it had not been targeted by a ban.

Official figures show that Pakistani nationals now represent the largest group seeking asylum in the United Kingdom, accounting for roughly one in 10 applications.

In 2024, 10,638 Pakistanis applied for asylum, nearly double the total recorded a year earlier and higher than applicants from Eritrea, Iran and Afghanistan.

Many applicants initially enter Britain through legal routes, including student, work or visitor visas, before later submitting asylum claims.

70pc rejected

Government data indicates that more than 70 per cent of Pak­istani asylum claims are rejected.

Despite the high refusal rate, only a small number of unsuccessful applicants are returned. Home Office figures show that 10,853 Pakistani asylum claims were refused in 2025, but just 445 individuals were deported to Pakistan during the same period — around 4.1pc of rejected applicants, or roughly one in 25.

British officials say countries that fail to cooperate in accepting deported nationals could face a range of penalties, including the suspension of priority visa services or broader restrictions affecting tourists, students and workers.

A government source told British media that the UK would not hesitate to impose visa sanctions on countries that do not cooperate in taking back their citizens. The figures have also triggered a political debate in Britain.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, described the removal rate as “pathetic”, noting that a returns agreement was signed with Islamabad in 2022 when then home secretary Priti Patel was in office.

He argued that tougher steps were needed.

“We must drastically reduce the number of visas granted to Pakistani nati­onals and exit the European Con­vention on Human Rights so that people with no right to be here can be deported,” he said.

Courtesy: Dawn News/Reuters

Pakistanis, including tourists, travelling to the United Kingdom (UK) will now be able to do so with an e-visa, receiving confirmation by email rather than stickers in passports, according to a statement issued by the British High Commission on Wednesday.

In July 2025, the UK government introduced an e-visa system for Pakistanis; however, it was limited to study or work visas. Applicants applying for general visitor visas were still required to obtain a physical visa.

In the statement released on Wednesday, the high commission said visitors would continue to submit their applications online and attend a visa application centre to provide biometrics.

It said that successful applicants would have a digital record of their immigration status provided through an e-visa, accessible through an online UK Visas and Immigration account.

“It means applicants no longer need to attend a visa application centre a second time to collect their passport, instead holding on to it after their biometrics session,” the commission said.

It said that e-visas provided a more secure way to manage immigration status and reduce the risk of lost or damaged documents.

“Applicants can generate a share code to prove their visa status at borders and elsewhere. There is no change to visa processing times, eligibility criteria or conditions,” it said.

The statement also quoted British High Commissioner Jane Marriott as saying that this was a “hugely exciting step” for Pakistanis travelling to the UK.

“As well as being able to save time by holding on to your passport, the new share code system makes it easier than ever to demonstrate your visa status,” she said.

Separately, in a video message posted on her X account on Wednesday, Marriot said that “nearly all visitors going to the UK can now use the new e-visa service when they travel”.

She said that under the new system, travelers will be able to keep their passports w

She said that under the new system, travellers will be able to keep their passports with them as they will not be required to hand them in.

She added that the “major difference is that you get to keep your passport with you and you no longer need to visit a visa centre for a second time (to pick up your passport)”.

She further said that “the process and application timelines have not changed”.

In 2024, the UK government had announced that the country’s immigration system was transitioning to a fully digital format, replacing physical documents with an online immigration system.

1- Header image: Union Jack flags flutter in the wind near Big Ben at Parliament Square in London, Britain, August 27, 2024. — Reuters/File