WSJ What’s News - The Trump Administration’s Latest Crackdown on Legal Immigration

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

P.M. Edition for July 16. A new regulation from the Trump administration will cap student visas to a maximum of four years, and require extensions to stay longer. Journal immigration reporter Michelle Hackman gets into how big a change this is and what students—and U.S. companies—will be most affected. Plus, Chevron says it plans to explore how to help Iraqi oil bypass the Strait of Hormuz. And a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that debt collectors took more debtors to court last year. We hear from WSJ economics reporter Dan Frosch about what that suggests about the health of the U.S. consumer. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify.

The Trump administration will limit how long foreign students can stay in the U.S. This creates a huge amount of uncertainty around, are you going to be denied finishing your degree midway through your degree? Plus, Chevron plans to help Iraq find a way to move its oil that doesn't involve the strait of Hormuz. And regulators approve a first of its kind pill to lower cholesterol. It's Thursday, July 16th. I'm Alex O'Slef for the Wall Street Journal. This is a PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

We start today's show talking about debt. The big U.S. banks reporting this week said that their results showed a healthy U.S. consumer, with delinquency rates on credit cards largely lower. But a new report out today from the Pew Charitable Trust shows that debt collectors are bringing even more consumers to court. with lawsuits in 2025 at their highest levels in years across eight states. In Missouri, for example, the number of lawsuits nearly doubled to more than 120,000 since 2019. Journal Economics reporter Dan Frasch said the bank's results don't reflect what's happening with all Americans. We know that consumers are taking on more debt, and some consumers are struggling with that debt.

Americans are clearly still struggling with inflation, with elevated prices. And what we see here with the lawsuits is sort of a lagging indicator. So it's certainly possible for these banks to say, hey, we're not having any issue with delinquencies. And that may reflect this particular moment right now, but it's not going to reflect sort of what's happened in the last few years. Dan says the outcome of these lawsuits can be painful for the people who didn't pay their bills. Almost always this debt is for under about $4,000. And oftentimes the outcome is that folks will see a default judgment against them, either because they don't know how to navigate the courts or they just simply don't respond. You can have your wages garnish.

You can have a lien put on your home. You can have assets seized if you are not able to succeed in fighting these lawsuits. Chevron will explore how to bypass the Strait of Hormuz for oil from Iraq. Chevron plans to sign preliminary deals tomorrow to invest in two Iraqi oil fields, and the oil giant will join a consortium that's considering building a pipeline that would connect Iraq's oil patch with Syria's coast on the Mediterranean. Gulf governments are pouring billions of dollars into new pipelines and other infrastructure that are alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zadi met President Trump Tuesday at the White House and visited Chevron's headquarters in Houston today. A Chevron executive says the deals are still a long way from being done. And U.S. diesel futures have surged about 20% since the beginning of last week. That's because, in addition to the conflict in the Middle East, one of the world's largest diesel suppliers, Russia, banned exports. The supply crunch is already showing up at the pump. The national average for a gallon of diesel rose to more than $5 today.

And analysts say that prices will likely keep climbing, as domestic stockpiles, which are already close to the lowest mark since the early 2000s, get smaller. And in stock markets, chip stocks were under pressure. The NASDAQ led the losses in the major indexes, closing down 1.5%. SpaceX closed under its $135 IPO price for the first time today, finishing at $131.11 a share. It lost nearly a trillion dollars in market cap since its peak of $2.68 trillion. Netflix reported earnings after the market closed and says profit rose almost 9% to $3.4 billion. The results were largely in line with Wall Street estimates, but the stock slipped in after-hours trading.

President Trump's media company is planning to sell faster access to his truth social posts to traders and institutional investors. It'll have real-time access in a data feed for those customers starting next month. Financial firms often pay to get data from social media platforms like X milliseconds fast. than it becomes available online. Trump Media Service is the latest example of the Trump family mixing its business interest and White House affairs. The company didn't say how much its service would cost.

Federal regulators are investigating a White House teleprompter operator for betting on President Trump's speeches. The prediction market platform, Kalshi, said the bets were on speeches like the State of the Union. Kalshi froze the teleprompter operator's accounts and kept more than $90,000 of his profits. The journal has learned that the operator, Gabriel Perez is in talks to settle the civil claims from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The White House says Perez has been placed on administrative leave without pay. Coming up, Iran allows a U.S. citizen to leave the country and the provision that a growing number of engaged couples demand in their pre-ups. More after the break. The first ever, all-electric, 2026 Subaru Trail Seeker is the EV for the Trail Obsessed, with up to 444 kilometers on a full charge and DC fast charging from 10 to 80% in about 30 minutes in ideal conditions. Plus, ample ground clearance and symmetrical all-wheel drive make the 2026 trail seeker the most capable EV Subaru has ever built. Test drive it at your local Subaru dealer or visit Subaru.ca. The Trump administration announced a new regulation today that will limit how long a foreign student can remain in the U.S. on a student visa.

making it harder for foreigners to study in the U.S. Journal Immigration reporter Michelle Hackman joins me now with more from Washington. Michelle, this new regulation would create a maximum of four years for a student visa. Then they'll need to apply for an extension if they want to stay longer. How big of a change is this from the existing rules? I know it sounds small because the average college degree is four years, but most international students come to the U.S. actually to go to graduate school and a PhD program is most often five or six years.

This creates a huge amount of uncertainty around, are you going to be denied midway through your degree? The other big issue is that student visas come with a really coveted perk called optional practical training that allows international students to work on their student visas for anywhere from a year to three years. It is a really big reason why international students come to the U.S. They want the opportunity to be able to work at an American company and then maybe hopefully be sponsored for a longer term visa. This regulation basically says once you finish your four-year degree, you need to apply again in order to take advantage of that OPT and you could be denied.

And what are the kinds of companies that could be affected by that the most? We're talking about tech companies in Silicon Valley banks or other companies on Wall Street. It's really hard to sponsor someone. You can't sponsor someone on an H-1B visa. directly out of school. And so sort of legally, you need some kind of bridge to get them to the H-1B. And that's what OPT has been. It's been a pathway for people to basically stay in America. So this new regulation, it's another major piece of the Trump administration's effort to limit legal immigration. Why take aim at students in particular?

The Trump administration think that the way that the current visa program is set up really promotes fraud, promotes people staying in the country longer than they should, that they'll come. enroll in a U.S. university and then keep prolonging their degrees because under the current system, their student visa is valid until they're no longer enrolled at a university. That was WSJ immigration reporter, Michelle Hackman. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you. The FDA has approved a first of its kind cholesterol pill.

The drug is from the U.S. pharma company Merck. It's called Lipfendra, and it's designed to help lower cholesterol levels beyond what statins alone can do. Studies show that Lipfendra cuts bad cholesterol by up to 60%. And Merck is now looking at whether the drug can also prevent heart attacks and strokes. Analysts see Lipendra as a big seller for Merck, with peak annual sales of more than $5 billion. Merck stock today closed up 3.3%. And in the northeast and Midwest, skies are looking a little different than usual. We've all seen the smoky, hazy skies due to wildfires burning in Canada.

In New York City tonight, the Statue of Liberty barely visible through the smoke with thick, hazy air. It is just trash out there when it comes to air quality folks. The EPA says people should try not to go outside too much. It's not clear how long the hazy air will last. Meteorologists say it could clear up by Saturday in the Midwest, but it's too soon to know what will happen in the Northeast this weekend when the World Cup final is scheduled to be played in an outdoor stadium in New Jersey. Iran has allowed an American citizen to go for.

free. Dina Karari, who is a dual citizen, has been prevented from leaving Iran since she visited in December 2024. President Trump called her release a gesture of goodwill, even as the U.S. launched more strikes on Iran in an effort to degrade Tehran's ability to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Washington nonprofit global reach says that more than 10 American nationals are still illegally held in Iran. For many millennials and Gen Ziers, the lead up to a wedding doesn't just involve picking a venue, an address, and a caterer. It also involves, It's not just that pre-ups have become popular. There's also a growing number that include what was once a rare provision that's intended to protect stay-at-home parents. Journal National

Legal Affairs reporter Aaron Mulvaney has been digging into this and is here now to discuss. Erin, this provision in particular that you were looking at, what does it usually entail? It would be a trigger in the contract that would slightly change the terms of how the pre-up works. It might mean making a separate account just. just in that parent's name. They could add raises to it. They could create a retirement account in the same way that you would have for like a 401k in a traditional job.

Honestly, it's mostly about money, how much money you'd get in alimony and how that would ultimately be divided. So if you don't have this kind of clause in your pre-up, what could happen if one parent does stay at home and then the parents end up getting divorced? I'll give you an example. Say you raise the children, you're married for 20 years,

and then they're out of high school. And so you really have given up all your earning power. And so maybe 50% of a house or the assets isn't even enough to start over your life while the other person has built their career, partially because they didn't have to have child care. So one person in the couple might end up with like nearly nothing and somebody else has everything that they burn during the marriage. That was WSJ National Legal Affairs Reporter, Erin Melfini. Thanks, Erin Melfini. Thank you. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon.

Today's show is produced by Anthony Bansy and Danny Lewis with supervising producer Tali Arbell. I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up?

That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca.