Judge Blocks Trump's Four-Year Cap on International Student Visas Hours Before It Took Effect

U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV blocked a DHS rule capping F-1 student and J-1 exchange visas at four years and cutting journalist I visas to 240 days, issuing a preliminary injunction the night of Sept. 14, 2026, hours before the rule was to take effect. Saylor's 48-page order found DHS had not adequately responded to public comments and failed to show a rational link to its stated national-security rationale, writing the government's justification "borders on the absurd."

The rule, finalized in July over roughly 22,000 mostly opposing comments, would have ended a nearly 50-year policy letting international students stay until finishing their studies. Universities warned it would especially harm Ph.D. students and exchange journalists; Saylor called the likely economic damage potentially "catastrophic," while stressing the injunction rests on procedural defects, not his view of the policy's wisdom.

The injunction came in a suit filed by eight higher-education groups seeking to vacate the rule; a status conference is set for Oct. 2.