In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bars citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days. Opponents of the ban worry that the temporary travel ban will turn into a permanent one.
Across the nation, college leaders have spoken out against the ban, claiming the executive order will be highly damaging to American higher education.
Indeed, tens of thousands of students from the seven countries named in the order attend college in the US, according to figures provided to Business Insider from College Factual, a higher education data analytics and research company.
College Factual collected data from Department of Homeland Security on the number of student visas that were approved in 2015, the most recent year they were able to get information. Below are number of US student visas from each country:
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If the ban stays in place, these students could be impacted. Some experts warn that the effect on foreign enrollment in US schools could be far greater than just adjusting for the seven banned countries.
"The domino effect of this ban will result in a precipitous decline in international student enrollment from Muslim-majority countries," Rahul Choudaha, cofounder of international student support organization interEDGE, told Business Insider in an email.
