American Students First Act of 2025

The American Students First Act of 2025 would impose a cap on how many nonimmigrant students (specifically F and M visa categories) may enroll at each United States university that participates in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). Under the bill, every university would receive a certificate from the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) limiting nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students to 10% of the university’s total student population in a given academic year. The President or the Secretary of Homeland Security could waive this 10% cap for national security reasons or if the waiver serves the interests of the United States, in which case the cap could be raised to no more than 15% of the student population in an academic year. The bill is currently introduced in the Senate (S. 2111) and would require further committee consideration. In plain terms, this bill would legally restrict the share of international students at U.S. universities to a fixed proportion, with limited exceptions for security or national-interest reasons. It would affect the participation rules for universities in SEVP and could influence international student recruitment, campus demographics, tuition revenue, and research capacity that often rely on foreign students and scholars.