By: Emma Ye and Michelle Kogan
“Imagine a bowl of M&Ms. 10% of them are poisoned. Go ahead. Eat a handful. Not all M&Ms are poison.” This analogy has been used, perhaps overused, in debates about immigration. Is it worth it to risk the 10% of M&Ms for the 90% of good ones? Maybe the answer is yes, maybe it’s no. But when it comes the to recent visa bans under Trump’s administration, the real group affected isn’t just any immigrant population — it’s students.
The step-by-step process to getting a visa, especially one for studying abroad, is extremely complicated. Even the most common type used by students at Blair, the F-1 visa, takes an average of a month to complete. The physical and emotional drain of even coming into the country definitely deters students from applying or attending boarding schools like Blair.
The real impact of these hurdles become clear when looking at individual experiences. One student at Blair with an F-1 visa commented: “I have never been away from my parents for longer than a few weeks, and now I’m forced to live 12 hours away from them for school,” highlighting how the rules affect not just legal status but daily life and emotional well-being, with parents not being able to obtain similar visas, or visit for longer periods of time. Another student described the stress of the process: “While I was renewing my passport, President Trump halted all visa interview scheduling. This was frustration and created a lot of anxiety in my family and me,” illustrating the emotional turmoil in the process and the pressure that builds when whether or not a student can actually go to school comes into question.
The uncertainty of the situation can also affect younger siblings, as the second student also mentions that: “because of everything that happened in the U.S., my sister is more scared and hesitant to come and is leaning towards going to the UK instead.” These experiences show that visa restrictions not only create stress and logistical challenges, but can also deter students and their families from pursuing education at Blair in the first place.
Visa restrictions have an overpowering impact on the lives and decisions of ordinary people, and the complexity, delays, and restrictions of the system can create significant stress and discouragement to talented students from pursuing further opportunities. Educational experiences are valuable, and policies targeted towards teens pursuing such experiences are truly detrimental. Therefore, recognition of such problems is not only beneficial, but crucial to help foster diversity, create interconnectedness, and support both students and families at Blair.
