Marco Rubio's student visa pause makes no sense at all

This is a season of anxiety for international students in the US, who find themselves demonised by the Trump administration as it devises new ways to limit their numbers.

- Patricia Lopez, Tribune News Service

The latest tactic came in a diplomatic cable from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to US embassies and consulates abroad, ordering a halt to the student visa interviews necessary to enter the country. The reason? An as-yet-undevised policy to further scrutinise the social media histories of students in a search for... what exactly? No one seems quite sure. It was President Donald Trump who, in his first term, initiated screenings of student visa applicants’ social media histories, looking primarily for terrorists or terrorist sympathiders. The policy became one of the few that was maintained by President Joe Biden when he succeeded Trump.