Mohsen Mahdawi, a 34 year old at Columbia University who spent 15 YEARS as an undergrad student, is on his way to being deported back to his native Jordan.
These "forever students" show a MASSIVE loophole in our system. 🧵
Foreign nationals on F-1 visas staying enrolled 15-25+ years to live here indefinitely.
Thousands of foreign "students" who entered 2000-2010 STILL have active F-1 status as of 2025.
This is ridiculous and must end.
DHS calls them exactly that: "forever" students, perpetually enrolled to remain in the U.S.
No repeated vetting. Weak oversight.
Past admins let this drag on since the 1970s "duration of status" rule.
The Trump Admin is ending it.
American students face heightened competition as universities chase full-tuition internationals turning campuses into visa mills.
How bad is it? Pay-to-stay scams where "schools" charge foreigners miniscule rates for fake enrollment so they never attend class but keep legal status.
ICE busted Koreatown networks enabling hundreds. And other similar fraud rings are running the same scam nationwide.
ICE has flagged over 10,000 potential cases tied to suspect employers from audits of the top 25 OPT employers alone.
An employer in Texas claimed to employ only 3 OPT students, but records showed over 500 foreign students listing it as their workplace.
One Georgia “company” claimed a PO box as its office, had an empty malware-flagged website, and claimed dozens of student employees.
In New Jersey, another “company” claimed 150+ F-1 OPT students but couldn’t explain who they were or what work they did.
Fake jobs. Real visas.
Corruption and fraud are endemic to these programs.
The solutions are simple:
- End the “duration of status” scam
- End OPT
Why should American students have their spots in admissions and classes be taken up by foreign “students” in their 15th year of undergrad?
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