Yale and 47 other U.S. colleges and universities nationwide filed a legal brief on Jan. 19 to assist judicial review in a lawsuit challenging the federal government's effort to rescind a university's right to host international students.
In an amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the institutions argue that the ability to attract "the best and brightest from all over the world has long been one of the United States' competitive advantages."
The brief, filed in a lawsuit brought by Harvard, contends that the U.S. Congress "has long maintained avenues for individuals from all over the world to pursue higher education in the United States." This long-term investment in foreign-born talent, the brief argues, has helped to make U.S. colleges and universities world-class research institutions capable of tackling pressing global challenges.
"These students have gone on to cure diseases, invent transformational technologies, and found companies that have fueled American economic growth," the brief states.
In May 2025, Harvard sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after the agency abruptly withdrew the university's certification to host foreign students. A month later, a federal district judge issued a preliminary injunction that preserved the university's ability to continue welcoming foreign students while the case is being decided. The federal government appealed the ruling.
The new amicus brief urges the appeals court to affirm the preliminary injunction.
It argues that canceling an institution's student visa program causes long-term and short-term harms, such as disrupting clinical trials and other ongoing projects, stifling promising scientific careers, and creating labor shortages. Moreover, it creates a chilling effect nationwide that might encourage talented foreign-born students to pursue their education elsewhere rather than face constant uncertainty about their visa status, the brief asserts.
"And for the American public, the destabilization of student visa programs via arbitrary cancellations threatens to stymie progress in scientific research, medical advancement, and technological innovation, with untold and irreversible consequences for the United States," the brief continues.
The brief notes that "individuals born outside the U.S. accounted for 40% of U.S.-based Nobel Laureates in physics, chemistry, and medicine from 2000 to 2023." And, it argues, foreign-born Americans have contributed to many of the country's most important scientific advances over the past century, including the internet, the mapping of the human genome, vaccines for diseases like polio and COVID-19, and the computer chips that are driving AI revolution.
The brief contends that scientific accomplishments of foreign-born U.S. citizens has spurred tremendous economic growth. For instance, it notes, Google, Nvidia, and Tesla - companies that together are worth more than $8 trillion and employ more than 300,000 people - were founded or co-founded by individuals born abroad.
The brief also points out that the hundreds of thousands of international students enrolled at U.S. institutions are contributing "to essential cutting-edge research," such as work currently happening at Yale to understand how inflammation affects metabolism, aging, and cancer.
Aside from disrupting research, canceling student visa programs would intensify serious physician shortages in the United States and undermine the country's competitiveness in science, technology, and medicine, according to the brief.
"Recognizing that the United States does not have a monopoly on scientific talent, Congress designed our immigration laws to allow American colleges and universities to attract the best students from all over the world," the brief states. "In return, those students have contributed to groundbreaking innovations, cutting-edge technology, and lifesaving research to the United States. And they have enhanced the education of all students."
