The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, resulted in substantial political, economic, and social changes in the nation. Higher education was not immune from this upheaval, and one significant way that 9/11 impacted colleges and universities was through federal legislation on international student enrollment. To date there have been few assessments of the repercussions of these regulations. This article explores two questions: which laws affect international student study in the U.S., and the intended and unintended consequences of these laws. We explore these questions through an analysis of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) and the F1 student visa--the two main methods for managing international enrollment. We also examine how they affect post-secondary institutions.