Using visa revocations and similar actions to stifle foreign scholars’ political speech is a violation of the First Amendment, according to an amicus brief filed by the American Historical Association (AHA), in collaboration with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The brief is in support of Harvard University’s lawsuit against the federal government over the university’s ability to host foreign scholars and students. Seventeen other scholarly humanities organizations joined the AHA on the brief, which was filed with the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
The brief conveys the importance of international scholars and students to American higher education, with a focus on the historical discipline, and the benefits and opportunities they bring to the United States.
In support of Harvard’s case, the brief explains that using visa revocations and the like not only violate the First Amendment, but also “threaten the tremendous contributions of foreign-born historians and other foreign scholars and students.”
Describing the global historical tradition of educational exchanges, the brief emphasizes how “American colleges and universities have long welcomed and benefited from cross-border scholarly exchanges.”
It examines how foreign scholars strengthen research across many disciplines and highlights how historians, including AHA members, have advanced and strengthened our discipline through their work in the United States.
As stated in the brief: “Like any academic field, history depends on the robust exchange of ideas, and foreign scholars are critical participants.”
In his 1974 AHA presidential address, Lewis Hanke emphasized how the study of history benefits from increasing “the professional relations of historians on an international scale” and the inclusion of foreign historians on our campuses. “Exchang[ing] ideas and experiences” with others, he argued, “improve[s] the teaching of both our own national histories and the history of other cultures.”
The brief also highlights important scholarly exchange programs such as:
The University of Oxford’s Rhodes Scholarship, which since 1902 has funded graduate study for “young leaders from around the world” so that, “through the pursuit of education together at Oxford, [they] w[ill] forge bonds of mutual understanding and fellowship for the betterment of mankind”;
In 1908, at President Theodore Roosevelt’s urging, Congress created the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program. Through the 1920s, the program enabled 1,300 Chinese students to study at American colleges and universities; many became “China’s major modern educators and scholars” and promoted modernization and American influence in the country;
European scholars fleeing totalitarian regimes during the Second World War found academic homes at U.S. colleges and universities and a number contributed to the war effort, including the Manhattan Project;
In 1946, Congress created the Fulbright Program to fund the “promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture, and science.”22 The program enables approximately 800 U.S. scholars and 2,000 U.S. students to study, conduct research, and/or teach abroad each year, and 900 foreign scholars and 4,000 foreign students to do the same in the U.S.23 The State Department, which administers the program, heralds alumni’s achievements. It explains that the “nearly 450,000 Fulbrighters . . . from the United States and 160 countries” have “fostered mutual understanding” and collaboration as participants and alumni, “gone on to achieve distinction” across disciplines, and facilitated a “shared vision for peaceful relations among nations”;
In 1952 and 1961, Congress created the visa programs implicated in this litigation—the F-1 visa program for foreign college or university students to study in the U.S., and the J-1 visa program for foreign scholars, professors, and other exchange visitors to research, teach, or carry out other activities. Congress created the latter program through the Fulbright-Hays Act, the “purpose of” which includes enabling “the Government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange,” and “to promote international cooperation for educational and cultural advancement.”
In 1990, Congress created the H-1B visa program, through which foreign scholars with specialized knowledge, among others, can obtain employment in the U.S. for three years. In 2000, through the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act, Congress specified that the numerical cap previously set for H-1B visas did not apply to visa recipients at higher education institutions. Congress did so to avoid adversely impacting “universities’ access to skilled” foreign professors and researchers, explaining: “Our universities, and our country as a whole, benefit from the admission of these exceptionally talented individuals. They represent the best the world has to offer,” and they “strengthen and diversify our economy.”
Those that joined the brief include the American Council of Learned Societies; Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies; Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies; Berkshire Conference of Women Historians; Business History Conference; Conference on Asian History; French Colonial Historical Society; Labor and Working-Class History Association; LGBTQ+ History Association; National Council on Public History; North American Conference on British Studies; Organization of American Historians; Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era; Society of Architectural Historians; Western History Association; Western Society for French History; and the World History Association.
Today, tens of thousands of foreign scholars on J-1 and other non-immigrant visas enter the U.S. each year to research, teach, and engage in other academic work. In the 2023-2024 academic year, 112,552 scholars came from all over the world — including Brazil, China, Germany, and Nigeria. These foreign scholars specialize in a range of disciplines, from the life sciences to the humanities.30 And colleges and universities across the country hosted them, with over 4,000 going to Harvard, the leading host institution.
The data tells a similar story about the foreign students who enter the U.S. on F-1 and other non-immigrant visas. Each year, hundreds of thousands of foreign students come from all over the world, study a range of subjects, and are hosted by schools across the country, including Harvard.
Higher education institutions benefit tremendously from foreign scholars and students. Harvard and other U.S. colleges and universities consistently sit atop the rankings of the world’s best schools.
The brief is available in full on the AHA website.
Founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the American Historical Association provides leadership for the discipline and promotes the critical role of historical thinking in public life.
As the largest membership association of professional historians in the world (nearly 11,000 members), the AHA serves historians in a wide variety of professions and represents every historical era and geographical area.
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