Cities with higher concentrations of foreign workers at U.S. universities saw “significantly more” anti-Israel campus protests, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies.
The report, authored by Jay P. Greene, a senior fellow at the institute who studies antisemitism in higher education, analyzed 2,331 protests related to Israel, Gaza and U.S. policy in 831 cities and towns between Oct. 7, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2024. It compared those demonstrations with the number of H-1B visas, which allow employers to hire nonimmigrant foreign workers, approved for colleges and universities in 2023.
“These campus protests weren’t only anti-Israel,” Greene told JNS. “They were anti-capitalism, anti-American, anti-Western. They had a range of radical agendas present in the protests.”
According to the report, jurisdictions with 1 to 49 H-1B approvals for universities averaged one protest during the study period. The average rose steadily as visa approvals increased.
The dataset showed that 50 to 99 visas corresponded to 9.5 protests, 100 to 149 visas corresponded to 12.5 protests, 150 to 199 visas corresponded to 26.2 protests, 200 to 299 visas corresponded to 35.7 protests and at least 300 visas corresponded to 67.3 protests.
Greene cautioned that while the findings establish a “strong” correlation to anti-Israel protests, they do not prove causation.
“It’s possible that some of the causation goes in the opposite direction, which is that there are places that are inclined toward radical policies and would be more likely to have radical protests, and those are the places that are more eager to have and recruit foreigners,” he said. “I suspect it goes in both directions.”
He told JNS that he believes the correlation is “mostly indirect,” reflecting broader changes within universities.
“What we’re talking about is a change in the culture of these institutions,” Greene said. “Some of it comes passively, which is that foreigners simply have not grown up in America. They haven’t grown up in the American education system. They’re not as familiar with and don’t have as much affinity for the American political system and its values.”
Greene also contended that some foreign workers being brought into universities are “hostile to America,” influencing students through classroom instruction and campus culture.
“If your intro professor talks about how evil capitalism is and how America is a colonial project and how Zionism is part of that colonial project, you repeat that stuff because that’s part of getting a good grade,” he told JNS.
He added that rather than being “debate clubs,” universities are “screeners of compliance with the dominant perspectives of the people who have power over others.”
“That hierarchy and power structure allows the culture to change,” Greene said. “When the culture changes, the students who are more radical are higher status. They’re doing better. They get better grades, they get more opportunities and their numbers increase, and then the protests become more common.”
‘Like squeezing a balloon’
The report argues that there is a “foreign labor pipeline” into higher education because colleges and universities are exempt from the annual statutory cap on H-1B visas that applies to most private employers.
Most employers must compete in a lottery for the 85,000 new H-1B visas approved each fiscal year. The result is that universities have become “an attractive vehicle for foreigners seeking end-runs around immigration laws so they can enter and stay in the U.S,” according to the report.
“It’s like squeezing a balloon,” Greene told JNS. “We constrict it everywhere else, but then it gets really big at universities.”
According to the report, H-1B visas sponsored by colleges and universities increased sharply after 2021, reaching 14,261 in 2022, 16,608 in 2024 and 15,763 in 2025. From 2022 to 2025, higher education institutions sponsored an average of 15,810 H-1B visas annually, up 40% from the 2010-21 average of 11,305.
The report also states that F-1 student visas increased by 75% between 2008 and 2024, driven largely by graduate students, essentially university employees as they “work in labs or teach classes in exchange for free tuition and a modest living stipend,” per the report.
The report states that many F-1 students can remain in the United States after graduation through the Optional Practical Training program, which allows them to work in their field of study for up to three years and subsequently transition to H-1B visas in higher education.
“People are beginning to figure this out, that this is a way in,” Greene told JNS.
Among its recommendations, the report calls for eliminating the H-1B exemption for colleges and universities and requiring them to compete with private employers for visas under the annual cap.
“It’s unclear why we should exempt Stanford but limit Google,” Greene said. “Maybe they should all just compete in the same capped pool.”
