Trump Administration escalates crackdown on international students

Hans India

a day ago

Across the country, foreign students are caught in a whirlwind of lawsuits, counteractions, reversals, and widespread uncertainty as the Trump administration intensifies its efforts to restrict international enrollment.
What's the latest?
On Wednesday, a federal judge extended an injunction preventing the administration's recent effort to bar Harvard from admitting students born outside the United States. Since March, U.S. authorities have canceled or revoked the visas of at least 4,700 international students, and several high-profile individuals have even been detained. In the last fortnight, scattered injunctions have protected students in multiple states, and some detained scholars have been released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. At the same time, the State Department confirmed it is 'aggressively' targeting additional Chinese academics over national security concerns.
Despite setbacks in the courts, the administration has pursued new policies. An internal State Department cable obtained by NBC News revealed that consulates have halted scheduling new student visa interviews. Concurrently, officials are preparing to widen social media vetting of visa applicants. Shortly thereafter, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the government intends to revoke visas held by Chinese students 'with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.' Details regarding which academic disciplines qualify as 'critical' or what constitutes links to the CCP remain unclear. When pressed, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce emphasized that visa procedures are confidential but asserted that these measures protect U.S. interests: 'We use every tool that we have to vet and to make sure we know who's coming in,' she said. 'In this particular case, the United States is putting America first by beginning to revoke visas of Chinese students as warranted.'
How did the administration revoke students' visas and statuses?
For months, universities and their international enrollees scrambled to understand why visas were abruptly terminated without warning. In late April, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed that it had run the names of 1.3 million foreign-born students through the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC). That search generated approximately 6,400 'hits,' and many of those flagged saw their records expunged from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which tracks all nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors.
Civil rights and immigration experts warned that using NCIC risked false positives, since the database depends on voluntary local reporting and does not always update final case outcomes. At an April hearing, Justice Department attorney Elizabeth D. Kurlan acknowledged these concerns, stating that ICE would no longer terminate students' statuses based solely on NCIC findings. She assured the court that, pending a new review process, students whose SEVIS records were canceled would have their legal status reinstated.
Nevertheless, an internal memo circulated among SEVIS staff expanded the criteria for terminating a student's status. Effective immediately, any visa revocation issued by the State Department would automatically trigger termination of SEVIS status. While students generally have a right to due process before losing legal status, visa cancellation now itself suffices to end a student's authorized stay.
The administration has also zeroed in on students involved in pro-Palestinian protests. Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University scholar Rümeysa Öztürk were both detained in March after participating in demonstrations; Öztürk was released from ICE custody weeks later. At a March news conference, Rubio vowed, 'Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas.'
Has anyone successfully challenged the administration?
From Georgia to South Dakota, international students have won court victories, with judges blocking the government's attempts to strip their legal status. Last week, a federal court issued a nationwide injunction preventing the administration from terminating the statuses of students enrolled at any U.S. university. This is the first ruling to offer relief to foreign students across all campuses.