New York science man and astrophysicist extraordinaire, Neil deGrasse Tyson, has gone viral once more, but this time, for his stance on American immigrants. Tyson’s pro-immigration outlook, however, was not exactly welcome in certain areas of the internet, and a clip where he explained why America needs immigration to prosper and advance on the world stage has been met with scrutiny.
Tyson, 67, appeared recently in an interview with MS NOW’s Clock It podcast from his New York loft home, where he touched upon topics such as deepfakes and the United States’ place when it comes to science and technology. After discussing NASA’s recent budget cuts, Tyson also branched into another issue within the US, such as “now we have this xenophobia, and we don’t want to let in foreign students.”
Tyson argues that this kind of anti-immigration stance will be bad for the advancement of science in the US, since “one third of all the Nobel prizes in sciences won by Americans were won by immigrants.” Moreover, “half of my fellow graduate students when I was getting my PhD were foreign nationals,” recalls Tyson.
The astrophysicist then implies that the current US administration’s tighter and supposedly scarier immigration policies could leave the US behind in science, “because we’re no longer relevant in the world,” should that happen.
“It’s time to wake the [expletive] up!” exclaims Tyson as some kind of call to action. While Tyson’s tirade about American immigration policies was heavily praised in the comment section, discussions on X were a little too polarized, and the clip led to prolonged debates not just about immigration, but also about Tyson’s credibility.
People online tried to debunk Tyson
One of the most popular re-posts of the podcast had no shortage of conservatives debating Tyson’s views on xenophobia. One X user suggested that the Astrophysicist was wrong in his evaluation of why students are scared to migrate to the US for further studies. “No, the US is not broadly barring foreign nationals from graduate schools. International students (especially in STEM) are still very much admitted and form a large share of grad enrollment,” claims the X commenter.
Others questioned some of Tyson’s pessimism regarding the future of science in the US, with comments like, “‘trail the world in everything’? What is he talking about. We lead the world in most things that matter.” Another resorted to insults, sadly, “He has stopped being a scientist and has become a paid liberal pundant.”
Tyson’s argument, however, does merit consideration, as there have been multiple cases in the recent past where foreign students were targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE). Some were even deported abruptly, and such incidents have led to anxiety and fear, with many student visas also revoked as a result.
