Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) claimed her motivation behind proposing legislation to stop issuing student visas to Chinese immigrants was a concern regarding espionage.
Weeks into Moody’s first term in the Senate, she introduced the Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act of 2025. In the House, she already has the support of Reps. Riley Moore (R-WV), Burgess Owens (R-UT), Troy Nehls (R-TX), and Brandon Gill (R-TX), among others.
“We’re giving 300,000 [visas] a year to come into our universities and to come into this country,” Moody said on Fox News’s Sunday Night in America. “They are required by law, under penalty — some of their families have even been hauled in by the CCP — to gather intelligence and cooperate with the CCP. So why we are offering visas, why these are still being handed out is insane at this time.”
Moody echoed her predecessor, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when she assured that “getting a student visa is not a right.”
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Rubio has gone as far as to defend the decisions to detain certain visa holders accused of attending protests featuring terrorist propaganda. The secretary reminded them that they are “visitors” and “don’t have a right to be in the United States.” Rubio confirmed that visas would not be granted to people who are forthcoming about their views that are counter to U.S. foreign policy interests.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) cited data showing 250,000 Chinese nationals living in the U.S. Moody previously noted that Florida alone has experienced an 8,000% increase in Chinese immigrants crossing into the state.