Nine universities face Labor Department subpoenas over postdoc J-1 visas

Vance put the share of researchers on J-1 visas doing grant-funded work at the nine schools at 61%, against a national average of 38% ^[18]. That is a gap of 23 percentage points, or a rate about 1.6 times the national one ^[22]. STAT asked the White House and the vice president's office where the figures came from and got no immediate reply ^[19].

National Science Foundation data complicate the comparison. They show that nearly 60% of postdocs in science, engineering and health hold temporary visas, and STAT notes that most of them would be on J-1s ^[9]. That national share is about 22 points above the administration's national average and within two points of the rate it assigns to the nine schools ^[17]. Both pairs of numbers can be right only if they count different people. If the 38% covers everyone paid from federal grants, graduate students and staff included, while the NSF figure counts postdocs alone, then the gap reflects who was counted more than anything particular to these nine campuses.

The thing the figure doesn't tell you, even with a method attached, is motive. A high J-1 share measures who was hired. Vance's charge is about why. "They're using them to undercut the wages of American grad students and American researchers, and it simply has to stop," he said ^[8]. I think the 61-versus-38 comparison cannot support that charge by itself. Testing it would take pay compared across visa status for comparable positions, and STAT reported that it is unclear how much evidence the administration has ^[12].

Subpoenas are already out. Anthony D'Esposito, the Labor Department's inspector general, said his office has issued them to the schools under scrutiny ^[3]. "If an American university is breaking the law to save a dollar while exposing American research to a foreign adversary, that is not academic excellence. It's institutional betrayal," he said ^[5]. At MIT, spokesperson Kimberly Allen wrote: "Each J-1 visa holder at MIT has been vetted and authorized to come here by the U.S. government, and we take seriously our obligations to follow U.S. law." ^[10] Spokespersons for Stanford, Yale and Harvard did not immediately reply to STAT ^[11].

Every other measure the administration has aimed at foreign scholars is still a proposal. The Department of Homeland Security has tried to cap stays for foreign graduate students and postdocs at four years, arguing that the current system lets them remain indefinitely and invites fraud ^[13]. On Wednesday the administration proposed a $70,000 fee for a work authorization program popular with international students ^[14]. DHS is also trying to revive a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas ^[15]. None of these has taken effect, and some have been temporarily blocked by lawsuits ^[16].

No figures on postdoc applications or offers at the nine schools appear in the reporting, so any effect on lab hiring is still a forecast. Elizabeth Goss, an immigration attorney in Boston, expects lasting harm. "This is an incredible series of self-owns," she said. "The government also knows that none of this will stand up in court. They just want to send a message: Don't come here." ^[20] She added, "It's going to take decades for us to repair the damage when this is over." ^[21]