The only certain way of preventing intellectual theft is preventing foreigners from entry to US universities - and companies. As for granting foreigners visa s

The only certain way of preventing intellectual theft is preventing foreigners from entry to US universities - and companies. As for granting foreigners visa status after graduation it depresses the wages of Americans (although helps US companies at least in the short run because of lowered wages). The risk is that these foreigners can pack up and leave the US at any time and unless their exit is prevented they can theoretically take their know how and mental blueprints with them (for example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Li https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Li ). Non-competes are rarely ever enforced internationally (and illegal even in California). The father of the American Industrial Revolution Samuel Slater evaded the British emigration ban and was called “Slater the Traitor”. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Slater https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Slater Policy makers will have to decide whether to ban foreigners (or the undesired foreigners of the day) or accept the real or perceived risk. Simple cost benefit analysis for policy makers. The reality is that these measures either way will only change things at the margins when looked at from a very long term perspective in terms of the rise and fall of nations and empires.