Gregg Clifton Speaks With WRAL News About Immigration, NIL Issues Faced by International Student-Athletes
Phoenix Partner and Collegiate & Professional Sports Law Practice Chair Gregg Clifton recently spoke with WRAL News for a wide-ranging article concerning uncertainties that international student-athletes face with respect to their immigration statuses and ability to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights.
The article, entitled “Duke’s Maluach shows how nation’s immigration changes could impact college athletes,” uses the example of Khaman Maluach – a center for Duke’s men’s basketball team who was born in South Sudan – to illustrate the challenges facing international student-athletes amid President Donald Trump’s broad immigration crackdown. As the article recounts, Maluach, who is widely expected to be a top 10 pick in the NBA Draft in June, was in the middle of Duke’s Final Four game against Houston in March when Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that he would be taking steps to revoke visas held by South Sudanese passport holders. Maluach has since said his agency is navigating his visa situation amid his draft preparations.
As part of its immigration agenda, the Trump administration has taken action to cancel 1,500 student visas in recent months, although it has reinstated most of them in response to court challenges, the WRAL News article noted. The prospect of deportation is but one issue facing international student-athletes, who study in the U.S. under “F visas” that prohibit them from working in the country. That reality creates issues for international student-athletes seeking to profit off their NIL rights, and it is currently unclear how upcoming changes that will allow schools to directly compensate student-athletes will affect them.
“So much is flux, it’s very hard to pinpoint specific answers,” Mr. Clifton told WRAL News. “We’re in a much more reactive stage with NIL and international visas. There’s a lot of answers we don’t have. We’re in a position of advising our international student-athletes to keep their antennae up, pay attention. You can’t ignore the reality of what is going on.”
With the Trump administration’s ever-shifting immigration policy, Mr. Clifton also told WRAL News that he is advising international student-athlete clients who decide to travel abroad to stay out of trouble in their home countries.
If their international student-athletes do travel out of the U.S., schools should remain in contact with them and advise them of any changes “to make sure they’re taking a little bit of a precautionary tale,” Clifton said.
Clifton is the chair of Lewis Brisbois’ Collegiate & Professional Sports Law Practice, vice chair of the Traditional Labor Law Practice, and a member of the firm’s Entertainment, Media & Sports and Labor & Employment Practices. He has extensive experience in the collegiate and professional sports world and has advised numerous professional franchises on a range of labor and employment issues, including Title III ADA regulatory compliance and wage and hour issues.
Read the full WRAL News article here.