Bimal Malla, owner of Sakoon Indian Fusion, didn’t mince his words about the future of his restaurant, located just steps from the Johns Hopkins University campus.

Business at the Indian restaurant in Charles Village is “down like 50% already,” Malla said, now that international students at Hopkins have left for the summer. If they don’t return this fall, he said, “we’re not going to survive a year or two.”

The Indian restaurant isn’t an anomaly. Business owners and managers are warning of potential financial devastation if international students aren’t able to return to campuses this fall.

The Trump administration has created a hostile climate for students from foreign countries studying in the U.S., implementing travel bans, monitoring the social media of visa applicants and amping up immigration enforcement.

One result: International students are less and less likely to be able to — or want to — study in this country. And if their presence decreases, that could be disastrous for Maryland.

International students and recent graduates infuse $1 billion into the state’s economy, supporting 10,180 jobs, according to data from NAFSA: the Association of International Educators. The Washington-based nonpartisan nonprofit focuses on international education.

While the federal government announced recently that it will resume visas for foreign students, applicants will now be required to go through an intense social media vetting process.

That will extend the already lengthy visa application process, said David Di Maria, vice provost for global engagement at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

“International students are one of the most highly vetted populations of non immigrants in the United States,” he said. “They’re also the most highly monitored.”

But with the Trump administration’s new restrictions and longer application process, fewer international students may think studying in the U.S. is worth it — something that would affect Maryland, he said.

Most international students pay the full sticker price for a university, coming from wealthier families that can afford to pay upwards of $90,000 per year. They also pump money into the local economies of their college towns, buying college essentials, exploring the area and going out to eat.

Elliot Zink, a bar manager of Lao Sze Chuan in Charles Village, estimated that 85% of the Hopkins international students who eat at the Chinese restaurant have roots in mainland China, Hong Kong and Korea.

The Trump administration has particularly targeted Chinese international students, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made it clear that the U.S. State Department will “aggressively revoke visas” for Chinese students, including those from Hong Kong.

During the school year, servers could count on turning over tables at least five times a night, Zink said, crediting the restaurant’s success to international students.

Now that it’s summer and most of those students are gone, the restaurant is “lucky” to get a room full of people dining in, Zink said. He fears that a seasonal problem could become the new normal.

“If things continue, and it gets untenable for international students to come study in the United States and at Johns Hopkins, I don’t see this restaurant surviving,” he said. “It would be devastating.”

Hopkins hosted 10,054 international students for the 2023-24 school year.

Malla, the owner of Sakoon Indian Fusion, said he chose to open his restaurant near the Hopkins campus to draw customers from its international student population. Without the benefit of international students, though, his high rent price might not be worth it, he said.

“I’ll tell the landlord and shut it down,” Malla said about his restaurant.

He opened it in 2017 and works there seven days a week to support his children and parents.

For every three international students, one U.S. job is created, according to NAFSA, supported by spending occurring in the higher education, accommodation, dining, retail, transportation, telecommunications and health insurance sectors.

Baltimore will feel the impact the most, according to the NAFSA analysis.

According to NAFSA, international students at Hopkins bring in over $504 million to the economy and support 5,894 jobs.

The NASFA report shows that international students at the Maryland Institute College of Art bring in $31.3 million and 148 jobs into the city’s economy. At the University of Maryland, Baltimore international students add $12.7 million to the local economy, and at Morgan State University international students bring in $12 million.

“When students come, they basically arrive with one or two suitcases,” said Di Maria, of UMBC. “There’s only so much they can bring — so they need to go shopping where they are.”

UMBC’s 3,107 international students bring in $104.8 million to the state’s economy; their spending supports 975 jobs in the community, according to the report.

“Graduate students rent apartments and need to furnish their space with everything from couches to pots and pans,” Di Maria explained. “They might get a used car or something to help transportation.”

The economic impact of international students, Di Maria said, can be compared to the economic impact of soybeans, the United States’ top agricultural export.

“This is something that certainly has an outside impact on communities that have colleges and universities,” Di Maria said. “Particularly those that are around major research universities that have larger number of international students.”

The economic losses that could occur with fewer international students aren’t being discussed enough, Di Maria worries.

“These things are maybe just not fully understood,” he said with a sigh. “This could be a sweeping change.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.