Oh my GOD. This is the first official confirmation that the new H-1B entry ban does not apply to people with current visas (despite the text not containing ANY exception for people with current visas), and it’s not even something on an official website, it’s a passive aggressive tweet!

To recap, Trump signed a proclamation saying that after midnight tonight, no one with an H-1B visa may enter the US unless they have paid $100,000. However, anonymous White House officials are saying it doesn't apply to people with current H-1B visas — yet there is NO official guidance! None!

The Trump Administration has announced measures to gut longstanding pathways based on exceptional ability, national interest, & merit in favor of pay-to-play immigration. @urbanviewradio.bsky.social This sends a signal to the world’s top talent that the U.S. is closing its doors. bit.ly/4nz1XBE

I have started just outright blocking people who respond to “that’s illegal” with nihilism. It is not helpful, it is not useful, it is not productive.

Why is this horrible for Universities? Just about everyone who isn't a citizen or green card holder already who's hired for a tenure track faculty position is hired through an H1B and then, after 3-5 years, applies for a green card. This is literally "No more foreign professors can be hired"

@nickmark.bsky.social apnews.com/article/h1b-...

Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion. Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

Microsoft is apparently commenting - bsky.app/profile/rive...

i don’t think people on bluesky understand the severity of this situation. i woke up to literally hundreds of texts from friends and family thinking about either moving back home to india or applying to other countries for jobs. this includes me.

Deleted the below posts out of an abundance of caution. Despite the words of the Proclamation, an unnamed White House official told New York Times that they intend to apply the $100,000 only to new applicants only. If that is correct, the implications are not as urgent.

We are still learning what this means, but it is massive. I was hired at my 1st position on an H1B visa. There is no way my university could have paid 100k & I seriously doubt other universities can. So research is going to be severely impacted by this move. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/u...

I can’t be the only one who is deeply, deeply unsettled about the rise of internet crowd sharing to expose and shame bad actors caught on camera, whether they be wife cheaters, hat grabbers, or ball-wanters? The internet is cheating us…

1) Academic press friends, help: The press of my book *Before Borders* has sent me emails asking me to allow my book to help train AI. These emails are full of pressure:

Why is it impossible to watch *Ernest Goes to Camp* anywhere?

I get it: AI is having a moment in higher Ed and literature faculty see openings. There are new funding initiatives and centers to be apart of. But the amount of born yesterday expertise I’m seeing is as concerning as the rise of AI itself.

Damn, this essay is FIRE archive.is/JLWvu

Historians - as you think about the new semester, consider this first-day exercise as a way to get conversation going about what historians *actually* do, and the context within which we do it. catherinedenial.org/blog/uncateg...

I’m sorry but does Brooks know anything about the Romantic novel? “There used to be a sense, inherited from the Romantic era, that novelists and artists served as consciences of the nation, as sages and prophets, who could stand apart and tell us who we are.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/o...

NYT writing trying too hard to sound cool:

Gah, is everyone writing on AI now?

There is no way that this season of The Bear wasn’t written by AI. Wow it was bad.

Also thanks to @rbuurma.bsky.social and @laheffernan.bsky.social for highlighting the longer history of this work—often led by women and centered on collaboration and building archives. I appreciate Rachel’s reminder that many of these methods resemble bibliographic methods & literary historicism

This is an old article of mine, but I think it still helps understand the current birthright debate. I arg that birthright is not enough in a country where naturalized citizens are not the same as natural-born citizens. It's a call to think about distinctions: www.bostonreview.net/articles/ste...

FIRST USWNT GOAL FOR CLAIRE HUTTON 👏🇺🇸

I’m cheering for the U.S. obviously but I’ve never cried during the Canadian national anthem before.

Best trip, even if I did spend the day of the oysters in question deleting every word I wrote…❤️

Some things should always stay the same…

We are back tomorrow 😤 #USWNT x Allstate

Still no better feeling - especially now - of flying into New York City on hot summer’s night.

🧵 of upcoming events (in-person and virtual) for THE INTERNAL COLONY in June. Excited to be in conversation with so many smart people over the next few weeks!

Shout out to Baltimore! Courtesy of @becquer.bsky.social

Incredible! Ryan, a former student of mine, pitched this in the “Public Humanities” grad course I taught and now here it is in the world. Another zany banger from the incomparable @ryancarroll.bsky.social!

Man wait till he hears about how authors design elaborate spreadsheets and spend hours calling and emailing and pay out of pocket to clear 600 words they’re just quoting to make a point about the writing itself

Christ. Just came downstairs to find my dad watching an entirely AI-generated YouTube video about an event that didn't happen involving the Pope. Had to convince him the whole think was fake. "How can you tell?" he asked. He has five degrees including a PhD.

This Friday, at the SNS conference at Duke, I am speaking on the plenary panel at noon. Each panelist will give a 10 minute position on "novel languages." Predictably, I'll speak about law & maybe a little Crusoe, if time... w/ Ainehi Edoro, Victoria Saramago & Jorge Téllez

A year ago I was writing about how this kind of immigration ‘solution’ was pioneered and rhetorically perfected in Denmark - the avant-garde of immigration control. I couldn’t know how quickly the uptake and activation of using poor and unstable countries as dumping ground would be in the U.S.

Years ago, at another institution, a colleague of mine quit because her partner (in bio tech) was making so much money & her salary was “laughable.” It devastated me because that “laughable” salary was how I supported my whole world…

The families separated at the border by Trump 1 is now at the mercy of Trump 2. www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

I’m genuinely glad Synder, Shore and Stanley made that video. I’ve tried to refrain from commenting in the past but the use of the word “flee” to describe 3 rich academic accepting a rich offer from a rich Canadian center drew me out. It’s an insult to asylum law and to migrants.

Yesterday, Gerald Neuman, Kris Collins and I filed an amicus brief arguing that the birthright citizenship executive order is clearly unlawful on statutory grounds. clearinghouse.net/doc/160190/ 🧵

Nice to see this review of my book today in Law and Humanities from law professor Robert Barsky. Interesting how he opens with a detail from my acknowledgements about my time working in a Canadian immigration law firm: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

My first time at Berkeley!

What an absurd sentence: “Charles, who is king of Canada, will be a symbol of Canadian sovereignty at a time when Mr. Trump is calling for it to become the 51st American state.”

Why are clams happy?

Tell me how you think this painting ended up on Facebook Marketplace?

One of the reasons I think every celebrity has a cookbook/show is that recipes are not copyrightable. It’s the easiest art to steal.

Looking for novels or other creative works that imagine futures of population growth. Suggestions? Open to everything!