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Nov. 17, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Melinda YaoInternational student enrollment rates at American colleges and universities fell sharply this year, driven by visa application issues as prospective students are caught up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.New international student enrollment in U.S. institutions declined by 17% in fall 2025, the largest nonpandemic decline in the last 11 years, according to new data released Monday by the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit that works to encourage foreign study. This figure, from a preliminary report covering a portion of the institutions, comes on the heels of a 7% drop in new international enrollees in the 2024-25 academic year.More than half of the 825 U.S. higher education institutions surveyed in the fall 2025 snapshot reported a decrease in new international enrollment, according to the IIE’s Open Doors report.“The U.S. is no longer the central place that students aspire to come to,” said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a nonprofit group. Aw attributed the decline to difficulties in obtaining a U.S. visa, saying the issues have made the U.S. “less competitive” on the global stage.According to the IIE report, 96% of higher education institutions cited visa application concerns as an obstacle for enrollment.Visa issues preceded President Donald Trump, as Aw attributed some of the 7% dip in the 2024-25 academic year to high visa denial rates from places like India and sub-Sarahan Africa. However, the Trump administration paused new student visa interviews in May, creating long application backlogs.This enrollment decline carries deep economic consequences, with a NAFSA report, also published Monday, estimating a $1.1 billion loss to the U.S. economy due to fewer international students. According to NAFSA, international students contributed nearly $43 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 355,000 jobs in the 2024-25 academic year.International students not only contribute through tuition fees, but also lift local economies through buying services and products, renting apartments, purchasing health insurance, and bringing international visitors, Aw said. NAFSA estimates that for every three international students, one U.S. job is created or supported.Melinda YaoI am an intern for NBC News’ Data / Graphics team.Joe Murphy contributed.

- Latest News - November 17, 2025

International student enrollment in U.S. higher education institutions has dropped sharply during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 17, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Scott BlandMore than 6 in 10 registered voters said they think “extreme political rhetoric” was an important contributor to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this year — including majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents, according to the latest NBC News poll.The findings represent a grim milestone in America’s reckoning with growing political violence and its root causes. The survey marks the first time, across questions about five different violent incidents over 15 years of NBC News polling, that there has been cross-partisan agreement that rhetoric played an important role in an attack, as opposed to the incident having been more about the actions of a single disturbed person.Overall, 61% of respondents said they feel that “extreme political rhetoric used by some in the media and by political leaders was an important contributor” to Kirk’s killing.Another 28% said they “feel more this is an incident caused by a disturbed person.” And 4% of those who participated in the poll volunteered, when presented with those two options, that they thought it was some of both.Republicans blamed rhetoric by the widest margin, 73%-19%, but independents (53%-28%) and Democrats (54%-34%) were also much more likely to blame extreme political rhetoric as a factor than to discount it.Tyler Robinson, 22, faces murder and other charges in Utah for allegedly killing Kirk. Investigators discovered text messages Robinson sent after the shooting of Kirk in which Robinson wrote he “had enough of his hatred,” according to charging documents filed by the Utah County prosecutor.President Donald Trump and his administration have blamed the left broadly for Kirk’s assassination.“We have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years, and I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet,” Vice President JD Vance said while hosting Kirk’s eponymous show days after Kirk was killed.On the same show, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller vowed to “use every resource we have” in the federal government to uproot a “vast domestic terror movement.”The investigation has not uncovered evidence linking Robinson to left-wing groups, NBC News reported in September. Robinson’s mother told law enforcement that her son “had become more political and had started to lean more to the left” in the year preceding the shooting of Kirk.NBC News has surveyed Americans’ feelings about several attacks on political figures in recent years: the shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., at an event in her district in 2011; the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., at a baseball practice in 2017; the hammer attack of Paul Pelosi, the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at their home in 2022; and the attempted assassination of Trump at his Florida golf course in 2024.The attempted assassination of Trump in September 2024 — the second attempt on his life in a matter of months, following the July shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — was the first time in NBC News polling that a majority of respondents overall pointed to rhetoric as an important factor in an episode of political violence.In each incident, members of the victim’s political party have been more likely to pin blame on extreme rhetoric than on just one individual. But more respondents have blamed rhetoric from political and media figures each time.The gap between Democrats and Republicans on the issue of extreme rhetoric as a factor was particularly wide in 2022, after the Pelosi attack, and in 2024, after the second attempt on Trump’s life.In 2022, 74% of Democrats said extreme political rhetoric played a role in the Pelosi attack, for which the perpetrator was also convicted on charges of attempting to kidnap the then-speaker of the House. Forty-eight percent of independents and 25% of Republicans agreed.In 2024, 76% of Republicans said rhetoric played a role in the attempted assassination of Trump, while 44% of independents and 39% of Democrats agreed.The Kirk assassination was part of a troubling string of violent and deadly attacks against political figures and institutions this year. High-profile incidents include when an arsonist set fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence in April, former Minnesota state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in June, and a shooter fired on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas in September, killing immigrants in custody after allegedly trying to target agents.The NBC News poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters Oct. 24-28 via a mix of telephone interviews and an online survey sent via text message. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.Scott BlandScott Bland is a senior politics editor at NBC News.

- Latest News - November 17, 2025

It’s the first time in NBC News polling across five different violent incidents that there’s been bipartisan agreement blaming extreme rhetoric.

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Nov. 17, 2025, 12:02 AM ESTBy Linda Takahashi and Dennis RomeroThe body of a girl swept into the Pacific amid high surf was found Sunday off the Central California coast, not far from where her father, who also died, tried to save her.The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said a diver discovered her body shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday 100 yards offshore about a half-mile north of her last known location in the water.The office confirmed the body is that of the girl, and it said after having spoken with family members that she is 7, not 5, as it initially reported. Her name has not been released.Shortly before 1 p.m. Friday, a wave pulled the girl from the shoreline into the water near Garrapata State Beach, about 12 miles south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, the sheriff’s office said. The surf at the time was estimated at 15 to 20 feet.Her father, identified as Yuji Hu, 39, of Calgary, went into the water after her, but both were swept farther out to sea, authorities have said. An off-duty California State Parks lifeguard pulled Hu from the water and administered CPR before Hu was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.The girl’s mother, who was not identified, also went into the water to help, authorities said. She made it back to land with the lifeguard’s help, state and local agencies said. She was released from a hospital after treatment for mild hypothermia, the sheriff’s office said Sunday.A 2-year-old who was with the family was not injured, it said.”The family has expressed their gratitude to all agencies, personnel, and community members involved in the search and recovery efforts,” the office said. In a separate storm-related incident, a 71-year-old man in Sutter County died when his car was swept away by overflowing stormwater along Pleasant Grove Creek on Friday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol.The agency said in a statement that signs warning the road is flooded were posted at the location before the incident.The roiling sea and big waves along the Central Coast in Monterey County were associated with the weekend’s winter-pattern storm that dove down California’s coast.The National Weather Service warned beachgoers along the Central Coast that double- and triple-overhead surf was looming and that “sneaker waves” known to strike dry sand with little notice were possible Friday. The storm, which moved east Sunday, flooded some Southern California streets, triggered sliding vehicle collisions, and produced more than 12 inches of rain at San Marcos Pass in Santa Barbara County, according to the National Weather Service. Santa Barbara County took in nearly half its average annual rainfall of 17 inches with the weekend storm, according to National Weather Service data.Linda TakahashiDennis RomeroDennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

- Latest News - November 17, 2025

The body of a girl swept into the Pacific amid high surf was found Sunday off the Central California coast, not far from where her father, who also died, tried.

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