January 8, 2025

Dear Presidents’ Alliance Member,

In this week’s Member Update:

• Happening Today: Webinar on How Campuses Can Prepare to Support Undocumented Students
• The Rift Over H-1B Visas: Why It Matters for Higher Ed
• Register Now: Webinar on Enrolling and Supporting Resettled Refugee Students
• FAFSA Data Protections Resource Now Available in Multiple Languages
• Introducing Our New Project Coordinator for the Legal Pathways that Work Initiative!
• ICYMI: It’s Not Too Late to Contribute and Strengthen Our Impact!
• Immigration in Brief
• Calendar of Events
• Top Reads

Happening Today: Webinar on How Campuses Can Prepare to Support Undocumented Students

Join the Presidents’ Alliance and partners today, Wednesday, January 8th, at 12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET for a webinar focused on practical steps higher education institutions can take with and for undocumented students to protect their data, rights, and safety. These practices can help reduce harm to students and their families who may be concerned about their safety and future in higher education. Higher education practitioners and administrators will gain the tools to make informed decisions, review and fortify the available protections, and build action plans.

Speakers include:

• Dan Berger, Partner, Curran, Berger & Kludt Immigration Fellow, Cornell Law School 
• Cynthia Carvajal, CUNY Director of Undocumented & Immigrant Student Programs, City University of New York
• Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, Policy Counsel, National Immigration Law Center
• Luz Bertadillo, Director of Campus Engagement, Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration 
• Nancy Jodaitis, Founder & Principal Consultant, Institutional Solutions

The Rift Over H-1B Visas: Why It Matters for Higher Ed

The H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to sponsor and hire foreign professionals. The first Trump administration sought to limit the H-1B visa program which resulted in successful litigation to stop those efforts. Over winter break, the debate over H-1Bs was reignited within the incoming administration, with Elon Musk and others defending the need for H-1B visas to recruit and retain global talent while others critiqued the program as displacing American workers.  

Musk is a former international student and  H-1B visa holder, and, his company, Tesla, is among the top employers of H-1B visa holders. While incoming President Trump expressed support for H-1Bs as a way to recruit top talent, policy proposals associated with the incoming administration would significantly reduce access to H-1B visas, especially for recent graduates. 

Why it matters? H-1B visas are the most common employment-based immigration pathway for international student graduates of U.S. colleges and universities and for the international researchers and faculty hired by U.S. higher education institutions. Last month, the Biden administration finalized the H-1B Modernization Rule, effective January 2025. In our statement commending the issuance of the final rule, we noted that key updates included clarifications that support international and non-citizen student graduates, nonprofit entities, and employers across the country.  

Despite the public rift, this latest debate underscores the bipartisan support, national relevance, and talent imperative for policies that support the recruitment and retention of global talent, including international and immigrant students and graduates of U.S. institutions. For example, according to a recent NFAP analysis, at least 30,000 employers had at least one H-1B petition approved in FY24 and over 70 percent of graduate students in AI-related fields are international students, underscoring the importance of global talent in driving innovation. Higher education leaders are exceptionally positioned to make this case. Supporting these legal pathways that work and employment-based immigration options are vital for all our non-citizen students and graduates who are in temporary and precarious immigration statuses so that they can stay, launch careers, and contribute to the economy and innovation in the U.S.

Register Now: Webinar on Enrolling and Supporting Resettled Refugee Students

Join the Supporting Higher Education in Refugee Resettlement (SHERR) Program and Switchboard for a one-hour webinar titled Enrolling and Supporting Resettled Refugee Students on Wednesday, January 22nd, at 1:00 PM ET. This webinar will highlight examples of partnerships between refugee-serving organizations and higher education institutions that build education pathways for resettled refugees. It will include efforts to inform and prepare refugees for higher education, supporting refugee students on campus, and transitioning refugee students to the workforce.

Find more information and register here.

For more details, please refer to the series flyer here. For questions about SHERR or this webinar, contact our Director of Refugee Student Initiatives, Laura Wagner, at laura@presidentsalliance.org.

FAFSA Data Protections Resource Now Available in Multiple Languages

Our FAFSA Data Protections Resource is now available in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Vietnamese, and Mandarin. Additional translations are forthcoming. 

For more information on filing the FAFSA as a member of a mixed-status family, visit our FAFSA Resource Hub on the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. For additional questions, please contact our Policy and Communications Associate, Corinne Kentor, at corinne@presidentsalliance.org.

Introducing Our New Project Coordinator for the Legal Pathways that Work Initiative!

We are thrilled to introduce our new project coordinator for the Legal Pathways that Work initiative, Caitlin Johnson!

In this role, Caitlin will manage the day-to-day operations of our new legal services pilot program. Caitlin has over 6 years of experience working in higher education and international education. Her previous work at the University of Kentucky included serving as a Designated School Official (DSO) and Alternate Responsible Officer (ARO) to advise F-1 and J-1 international students on maintaining visa status, facilitating university departments in hiring and hosting international faculty and visitors, leading initiatives to support displaced students, and providing career advising services.

We are excited to have Caitlin onboard. She can be reached at caitlin@presidentsalliance.org.

ICYMI: It’s Not Too Late to Contribute and Strengthen Our Impact!

Thank you for supporting immigrant-origin, international, and refugee students this past year. Your generosity helps the Presidents’ Alliance provide critical resources, advocacy, and guidance to foster inclusive campuses where all students can thrive.

If you haven’t had the chance to contribute yet, it’s not too late! Your tax-deductible donation will directly support expanding resources, building tools, and creating spaces for faculty, staff, and practitioners to collaborate and uplift student communities. Plus, for donations over $400, we would like to show our appreciation by sending you a copy of Amplifying Black Undocumented Student Voices in Higher Education by Dr. Felecia Russell.



Make your contribution today, and help champion a brighter future for all students! Thank you for being an essential part of our mission.

Immigration in Brief

• Immigration accounted for 84% of the U.S. population growth in 2024 and drove the population growth to its fastest rate since 2001. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, immigration increased by almost 2.8 million in 2024, with the larger than anticipated increase due in part because individuals admitted for humanitarian reasons were newly included in the totals. Immigration accounted for all the growth in 16 states that otherwise would have lost population.
• Senators Durbin, Booker, Cortez Masto, Duckworth, Hirono, Luján, and Padilla sent a letter to the Biden administration urging the President to take action to protect immigrant families. Referencing the threats posed by the incoming Trump administration, the Senators emphasized the importance of protecting mixed-status families and ensuring the safety and security of immigrant communities throughout the nation. The letter outlined several actions President Biden could take before January 20th, including redesignating and extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS), expediting processing of benefit requests for DACA recipients, addressing the asylum backlog, and providing automatic extensions for those with work permits, among others.   
• The Department of Education decided not to finalize the proposed rule to expand eligibility for federal TRIO programs to undocumented students. TRIO programs provide critical support for students facing barriers to higher education, including first-generation and low-income aspiring college students. In 2024, the Federal Trio Programs Subcommittee voted in favor of the expansion after initially expressing reservations about the proposal. In explaining their decision, Department officials wrote that increasing eligibility for some TRIO programs and not others could increase administrative burden and create confusion for program administrators, a concern not voiced by many practitioners and experts who instead pointed to existing burdens posed by restricting access for otherwise eligible students.

Calendar of Events

• January 8, 2025 | How Campuses Can Prepare to Support Undocumented Students and Safeguard Their Data in Higher Education | Register Here
• January 22, 2025 | Enrolling and Supporting Resettled Refugee Students | Register Here

Top Reads



• H-1B Visa Overhaul to Boost Global Hiring in the U.S. by Polly Nash (The PIE News)
• A Second Trump Presidency Has Higher Education on Edge by Mark Lucivero and Cassie Semyon (Spectrum News 1)
• Overseas Students: Why We Need Diversity and How to Get It by Rajika Bhandari (University World News)
• Black and Immigrant: Navigating America’s Polarized Landscape Through HBCUs by Jody Dixon (Diverse Education)
• Trump Deportation Threats Weigh on Groups Offering FAFSA Help by Ariel Gilreath (The Hechinger Report)
• Senate President Albritton Ponders Phasing Out Tuition Breaks for 'Dreamers' by Jim Turner and Tom Urban (WUSF)
• Taking Away the Dream of a College Education From Dreamers Is Cruel | Opinion by the Miami Herald Editorial Board (Miami Herald)
• Court Blocks States From Hindering Obamacare to DACA Recipients by Ganny Belloni (Bloomberg Law)
• ‘Dreamers’ Make Emergency Plans as Trump Vows to Deport Millions by Jim Carlton (The Wall Street Journal)
• ‘It’s a Scary Time’: US Universities Urge International Students to Return to Campus Before Trump Inauguration by Ray Sanchez (CNN)
• A MAGA ‘Civil War’ on X Between Musk and the Far Right Over H-1B Visas by Pranshu Verma and Cat Zakrzewski (The Washington Post)
• The Visas Dividing MAGA World Help Power the U.S. Tech Industry by Paul Kiernan and Angel Au-Yeung (The Wall Street Journal)
• Will Trump Take On Misuse of Student Visas? by Eddie West and Anna Esaki-Smith (Inside Higher Ed)
• What Rights Do Immigrant Students and Families Have in California Schools and Colleges? | Quick Guide by Zaidee Stavely (EdSource)

Thank you for your support and engagement.

The Presidents’ Alliance Team