University and media reports show that at least 147 international students have recently been suddenly stripped of their ability to stay in the US, waking fear among students, embracing school confusion and scrambling to help students who may be detained and erupted.
The move has targeted students from a wide range of universities, ranging from private institutions such as Harvard and Stanford to public institutions such as the University of Texas at Austin and Minnesota State University Mankart. The University of California had reported dozens of cases across campus.
Several immigration attorneys told the New York Times that they began receiving calls late last week from students who were notified last week by the State Department or university, and from students who were notified that their visa or status had ended without clear justification.
Criminal convictions always put students at risk of losing their status, but traffic violations and participation in political action are not cited as basis.
In some cases, immigration officers arrested international students related to involvement in Palestinian causes. In other cases, students drove above speed limits or committed legal violations while drunk several years ago, several immigration lawyers said in an interview several years ago.
But lawyers said the Trump administration often gave no reason at all, making students speculate on why they were targeted.
“This overturns all normal government practices,” said Miriam Feldblum, CEO of the Alliance of Higher Education and Immigration, representing more than 570 public and private universities across the country. “They have terminated their student status in a way they have never done before, effectively without explanation and not due to requests for revision or appeal by either the facility or the student.”
Later last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to scrutinise social media posts from several visa applicants in order to alienate those suspected of criticizing the United States and Israel.
The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Recent movements have added concern to the already unstable environment for international students and academics in the US. Advocates of international education worry that such a move will cool the ability of American schools to attract international students.
Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate student who was involved in pro-Palestinian activities last month during a campus protest, was arrested in his apartment and sent to Louisiana for possible deportation despite being a permanent resident. Shortly afterwards, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish native, was detained by a masked agent from US immigration and customs enforcement on the way to meet a friend. Ozturk, who wrote an essay on Palestinian opinions, was also taken to Louisiana.
The move aimed at international students fits with the Trump administration's broader policy agenda of reducing the number of legal and undocumented immigrants and forcing universities to force their president to do what they say is anti-Semitic on campus.
The US issued over 400,000 visas to students in 2024.
The lawyers said some of the students they recently targeted had committed crimes, including speeding and driving. They said such crimes did not rise to deportation normally.
Without a visa, international students must risk leaving the United States or being detained and deported to be placed in deportation proceedings. Several lawyers said the Homeland Security Administration has chosen to leave the country out of fear that he could be arrested from the ice accused of carrying out Trump's vows of deportation.
Some of the affected students are graduate students with doctoral thesis that they are supposed to advocate next month. The rest are undergraduates. Still others have completed their research and are working in the United States under a special program that allows recent international graduates to remain in the country for up to three years if employed.
“This is completely unprecedented,” says Fuji Wittenburg, an immigration lawyer in Calabasas, California, who has been practicing law for 20 years. “I've never seen anything close to this.”
She added, “That's the only law enforcement brush that didn't necessarily result in arrests or convictions.”
Wittenberg said one of her clients was an Indian citizen who was drunk and drove while studying in the US more than a decade ago. When he recently applied for his second student visa, he disclosed the charges to his country's US consular authorities. They ultimately gave him a visa to pursue further research in the United States.
Harvard University advised international students in a webinar last week to reconsider their travels abroad, according to the Student Newspaper. Staff also warned students that pro-Palestinian speeches could be dangerous.
According to Crimson, attorney Jason Corral said in the webinar that there appears to be a change since President Trump's first term. “The difference is seeing situations where people's visas seem to be cancelled based on speeches and protests,” he said.
In the alert, a coalition of student media organizations across the country urged student media last week to “minimise harm” and cited the threat to student speeches.
A letter sent Monday by the University of California Council to University of California, Michael Drake, president of the University of California, said it argued that the university should help targeted students and that it had a “moral obligation” to protect the legal rights of students and academics.
A letter co-signed by the University Council, a Faculty of Education and the Librarians' Union, called on the university to allow students who have been deported or detained to continue the program remotely, continue to offer scholarships, salaries and fellowships, and to support court students.
Several students have appealed to the government to challenge the firing, and the lawsuit is expected to build up.
Stacey Torchin, an immigration lawyer in Pasadena, California, filed two cases in federal court in Los Angeles on Saturday, saying he will file more this week.
In one case, the American Civil Liberties Union represents a Chinese doctoral student at Dartmouth University studying computer science. According to a complaint filed on April 4, student Xiaotian Liu did not commit any crimes or participate in the protests.
The university told students via email that this was “not a standard or normal procedure,” according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in New Hampshire.
“My dream of completing my doctoral studies at Xiaotian and completing my PhD from Dartmouth University is now at serious risk,” the lawsuit states.
