Immigration lawyers and activists claim the Trump Administration has ramped up its targeting of Chinese scientists and researchers in US
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenNayan Sethin WashingtonPublished: 7:11am, 24 Jun 2026Updated: 7:12am, 24 Jun 2026Leading immigration lawyers and activists say the US government has intensified its crackdown on Chinese scientists and researchers – a campaign they argue is even more aggressive than the controversial “China Initiative” launched during US President Donald Trump’s first term.“I think now we are clearly in an era of China Initiative 2.0,” said Robert Fisher, a former Assistant US Attorney and a partner at Nixon Peabody, a Boston-based international law firm.
Speaking at an online panel hosted by the Asian-American Scholar Forum on Tuesday, Fisher said he was witnessing a “large uptick” in federal and state investigations involving China-linked researchers, scientists and professors, though he noted that most had not yet resulted in indictments or prosecutions.
04:26Chinese-American scientists fear US racial profiling “I have many, many folks who are under investigation, whether a search warrant was executed on their home or they’ve been stopped at the border,” he added.
