Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is working to “do away” with foreign nationals from select countries he dubbed “adversaries” by prohibiting them from attending United States universities, he told Fox Business Thursday morning.

He also suggested that American students were being rejected from universities due to the growing number of foreign students from outside countries — numbers that he would also like to see reduced.

“They are turned down, they apply, but they can’t get in because there are no slots for them because of all the foreign nationals coming in,” Tuberville said.

“We want to make sure we limit the number that comes in, but we surely want to limit our adversaries; we want to do away with Iran, North Koreans or Chinese nationals getting into this country and learning how to destroy the United States of America and our allies.”

Tuberville, who launched his campaign to become Alabama’s governor in May, said he’s actively working on a bill to prohibit foreign nationals from those countries from studying in the United States, as well as limit the number of all foreign national students, regardless of their country of origin. He introduced similar legislation in 2023 that failed to advance in Congress.

Tuberville has received criticism for rhetoric critics have labeled as xenophobic, including the senator’s praise for President Donald Trump’s past comments about migrants “poisoning the blood” of the United States. He told The Independent that he was “mad he wasn’t even tougher than that,” and stating “we’re being overrun.”

International students made up nearly 6% of all enrollment in American universities during the 2023-2024 academic year, a 7% increase over the previous year, with more than 1.1 million studying at colleges across the United States. Chinese students made up a significant portion of America’s foreign students – about 24.6% – in the 2023-2024 academic year, and made up about 10% of the entire student body at the University of Illinois.

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