The Trump Administration’s Latest Crackdown on Legal Immigration

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Alex Ossola (0:33)

The Trump Administration will limit how long foreign students can stay in the US.

Michelle Hackman (0:38)

This creates a huge amount of uncertainty around are you going to be denied finishing your degree midway through your degree.

Alex Ossola (0:46)

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 Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is a PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that moved the world today.

We start today's show talking about debt. The big US banks reporting this week said that their results showed a healthy US consumer with delinquency rates on credit cards largely lower. But a new report out today from the Pew Charitable Trusts 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 Frosch said the bank's results don't reflect what's happening with all Americans.

Dan Frosch (1:45)

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.

Alex Ossola (2:15)

Dan says the outcome of these lawsuits can be painful for the people who didn't pay their bills.

Dan Frosch (2:20)

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 garnished. 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.

Alex Ossola (2:50)

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-Zaydi 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 US 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's lost nearly $1 trillion 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 will 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 faster 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.