In a sprawling lab in Evanston, Michaël Elbaz watched a tiny mouse scamper across its cage. The Northwestern University postdoctoral researcher has spent hundreds of hours monitoring the animals — tracing the intricate interplay of neuronal activity and decision-making processes.

“You could spend your whole life trying to understand just one part of this,” he said, gesturing to a diagram of a rodent brain.

The research has consumed nearly five years of Elbaz’s life. But a new federal policy may cut his study short.

The French national came to the U.S. with an exchange visitor visa, which is soon set to expire. To remain in the country, he planned to petition for an H-1B visa, the primary employment pathway for foreign professionals. Then, earlier this month, the Trump administration ann

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