U.S. — A federal judge struck down the Trump administration's H-1B visa program order earlier this month. The administration announced it would appeal the decision.

Last year, the administration ordered changes to the H-1B visa program, overhauling the process for highly skilled foreign students to come to the U.S. for school and work. The changes required employers to pay $100,000 for each application, an increase from the previous cost of around $5,000. The administration also enacted travel bans affecting dozens of countries and tightened refugee admission requirements.

International student enrollment in U.S. schools dipped 17% last fall. Declining international student tuition spending resulted in $1.1 billion in lost revenue for U.S. universities, and declining enrollment resulted in almost 23,000 fewer jobs. The drop in visa issuances in the last academic year may have been as high as 36%. In comparison, 82% of schools in Asia saw undergraduate enrollment rise last year and 47% of schools in Europe saw undergraduate enrollment rise, while only 18% of schools in the U.S. saw undergraduate enrollment rise.

A paper published by researchers at the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that if the number of STEM graduates trained in the U.S. falls by a third over the next decade, it would reduce the country's GDP by between $240 billion and $481 billion. The institute stated, "A major and enduring economic advantage of the United States has been its ability to recruit and educate top talent from around the world."

57% of the 1.2 million international students who attended U.S. schools last year were enrolled in a STEM program. The institute indicated, "In practice, recruitment of high-skill STEM talent into the United States happens primarily at U.S. universities." It also noted, "These high-skill STEM workers lost to the United States won't disappear."