Critics Reject Rep. Swalwell’s Idea To Expel All Russian Students

Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-CA) idea to expel Russian students from US universities has generated controversy, and for good reason. The idea raises questions about what expelling students would accomplish and the wisdom of targeting students who have no connection to the Russian government or the invasion of Ukraine.

“Rep. Eric Swalwell floated an idea on Thursday to kick Russian students out of the US as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine, a controversial suggestion that quickly faced pushback, ”reported Tal Kopan in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“On the table should be sanctioning Putin personally, completely taking them out of the European and international banking system which is known as SWIFT,” Swalwell said on CNN. “Frankly, I think closing their embassy in the United States. kicking every Russian student out of the United States, those should all be on the table. ” (Emphasis added.)

Kopan followed up with the Congressman after noting the pushback from immigration experts. “But Swalwell stood behind the idea Friday as scrutiny of his remarks grew.”

“I’ve laid out a number of options we should consider if Putin doesn’t back off,” Swalwell said San Francisco Chronicle in a text message. “That is just one of them. So is closing their embassy. Reducing their role at the UN in NY. Cut their visas for UN employees. The goal is to isolate Russia. Make it clear they are a pariah state. ” Swalwell cited “current and former intelligence community members who suggested it [kicking out Russian students] as a way to increase unrest in Russia. ”

To those who follow Russia, it seems unlikely that expelling students will “increase unrest in Russia.” The more likely outcome would seem to be ruined education plans and sympathetic coverage in Russian state media of young people, it would be argued, who were unfairly targeted by the US government.

Swalwell also cited an unusual source of support for his idea: The “comments section” on the Fox News website. “He also tweeted A link to the Fox News story on his remarks and claimed those commenting on the article supporting the idea, ”reported Kopan. “When Fox News thinks they’re owning me but the comments section agrees with me. Looks like they miscalculated America. We don’t root for Russia. You bet wrong, “wrote Swalwell.

Expelling international students would deprive the United States of people like Gleb Yushin, an engineering and materials professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a co-founder of Sila Nanotechnologies. After graduating with a BA in physics from the Polytechnic Institute in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Yushin earned a Ph.D. in materials science from North Carolina State University in 2003.

Sila Nanotechnologies is valued at over $ 3 billion and produces “next generation” battery materials to improve energy storage used in many products, such as wearable health and fitness devices. “The research, rigor, and chemistry innovation behind our breakthrough silicon anode material was born at Georgia Tech,” notes the company, referring to Yushin’s research.

“If anything, we should attract more students from the former USSR to the US to greatly broaden their views and to embrace the international community,” said Gleb Yushin in an interview. “I think the brightest students from Russia and any other country should get the best opportunities to study and contribute to building a better world. Smart people tend to distinguish right from wrong when they are exposed to diverse, uncensored opinions. Having said that, I think it might be fair that the families of those who benefit the most from the corrupt Putin regime and those who supported this horrific invasion, war crimes and atrocities would be sanctioned. “

Yushin provides a great example of how unjust a blanket policy of excluding students from Russia (or any country) would be: If the Biden administration took Rep. Swalwell’s advice, it would expel from the United States the daughter of Alexei Navalny. Navalny was poisoned, nearly died and is now imprisoned for his opposition to the Russian government. Navalny’s daughter is a student at Stanford.

“I am sure Putin would love to ban the international education of Russian students since they may get ‘wrong’ ideas abroad and bring these ideas home or affect the views of their friends and family members,” Yushin said.

Dmitri Alperovitch also came to America as a young person from Russia. He immigrated to the United States in the 1990s from the Soviet Union while in his mid-teens. His family settled in Tennessee, and he earned a graduate degree in information security from Georgia Tech.

Alperovitch became one of America’s leading experts on cybersecurity and cofounded CrowdStrike, which has more than 3,300 employees and a market capitalization of over $ 40 billion. In 2016, he was involved in CrowdStrike’s investigation into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), “identifying two separate Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries present in the DNC network in May 2016.”

Today, Alperovitch is chairman of the nonprofit Silverado Policy Accelerator and has a frequent presence in the media on Russia, cybersecurity and other issues. “This country has been incredibly good to me,” he told me in a 2018 interview. “I am a citizen and proud to contribute to the economic and national security of the country. I’m very happy my parents made the decision for our family to immigrate to America. “

“Students should never be used as pawns in an international conflict, and we should know this by now,” said Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, in an interview. “International education is one of our most valuable exports, not simply because of the economic contributions of international students but because of the American values ​​it imparts, the greater cross-national understanding it nurtures, and the lifelong connections to the United States it inspires. ”

“Our colleges and universities not only recruit and train global talent but instill in students the values ​​of our democracy,” said Ali Noorani, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. “Now is the time to welcome Russian students and students from around the world.”

The day after the San Francisco Chronicle article appeared, Swalwell tweeted a new list on “What else can our alliance do against Russia?” Gone from the list was his idea to expel all Russian students from the United States. He replaced it with the much narrower “Send home oligarchs’ kids with student visas” and other suggestions. It appears Rep. Swalwell realizes treating innocent people unjustly is not a good way to achieve justice.