On Friday, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) warned that the United States was funding its own "demise" by allowing students from hostile countries like China and Iran to study at American colleges and universities.
Tuberville argued in favor of his new bill, the Student Visa Integrity Act, Fox News Channel's "Jesse Watters Primetime," saying that the 1.5 million foreign nationals studying in American schools were blocking American kids from higher education.
"[W]e are funding our own demise in this country, Charlie," Tuberville emphasized. "I went to a graduation from a small university in the past few weeks, and I looked into their program. Now, this is a small southern university. It had 40 graduates. China, they had engineering degrees and cyber degrees. I mean, we have lost our minds. Absolutely lost our minds. We have 1.5 [million] foreign nationals that are in our universities in this country, and they are coming here, and we are inviting them to come. We are giving them visas, and that is blocking our kids, our American kids, from having opportunities to take some of these slots. I don't know what we are thinking."
"But my bill ... the Integrity Act basically says no more Iranians, no more Chinese," he continued. "If a university or college brings in foreign nationals, they have to show did they have to get any funding from them? Are there any special dealings that they get? Also, they have to have a deadline for a visa, and at the end of the day, if they break one of these rules, they will pay a price, the university will. We have to make sure we keep on this. The federal government, you know, we do all these things, but we don't have oversight on them. We have to have oversight on this, or we are going to lose. Again, we are educating our own demise in this country."
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