As Donald Trump targets student visas, UT should defend free speech for all

Yahoo

21-04-2025

The messaging emblazoned across the University of Texas campus embraces a global outlook: 'What starts here changes the world.'
Yet the federal government's sweeping efforts to rescind international students' visas — so far ensnaring at least 176 students across the entire UT system, a sizable chunk of the more than 1,000 students impacted across all American universities — sends a much different, ominous message.
Speak out here and it's time to leave.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said his office is working 'every day' to deport the 'lunatics' who engaged last year in pro-Palestinian protests — a plainly unconstitutional use of government power to suppress political speech. Equally alarming, court records suggest some international students at other universities had their visas revoked over infractions as minor as traffic citations, or for no discernible reason at all.
This is a moment for the University of Texas to stand firm in defense of free speech, and for alumni and the community at large to stand firm with UT. The Trump administration's targeting of international students is an attack on U.S. values — a chilling of protected speech, a stifling of the diverse viewpoints central to learning and innovation, an erosion of the American experiment. The stakes affect us all.
To be clear, it is not protected speech to threaten or harass someone. Anyone whose conduct endangered others has forfeited their right to remain on campus. The uptick in antisemitism in America, and specifically on college campuses, is deeply troubling and demands effective response from campus leaders.
But just as UT and state troopers overreacted with force against pro-Palestinian protesters a year ago, the Trump administration is overreaching now in deporting foreign students based on their political activity.
A coalition of Jewish organizations led by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs this week rejected 'the false choice between confronting antisemitism and upholding democracy.'
'Our safety as Jews has always been tied to the rule of law, to the safety of others, to the strength of civil society, and to the protection of rights and liberties for all,' the coalition wrote.
'All' includes foreign students learning at American institutions. In protecting the rights to free speech and assembly, the First Amendment does not distinguish between citizens and noncitizens. Rather, it bars the government from interfering with those fundamental acts of self-expression.
Perhaps the Trump administration hopes that most Americans will be indifferent to the fate of a relatively small group of foreign students. Those whose visas were rescinded account for just a fraction of the 1,900 international undergrads and 4,600 international graduate students at UT Austin.
But moments like these are a test and a sign of things to come. The Trump administration is unleashing a barrage of strategies to silence dissent and sideline institutions that stand for the pursuit of truth — from strong-arming law firms that crossed President Trump, to gutting research funding at universities (including more than $6 million at UT), to attempting to dictate hiring and student discipline policies at Harvard University, to planning to eliminate the federal dollars supporting public media such as NPR, PBS and their Austin affiliates.
Having sent hundreds of undocumented immigrants to a prison in El Salvador, Trump now muses about sending 'homegrown' American offenders to that brutal lockup. It is equally likely that Trump's efforts to silence foreign students through intimidation is a warm-up act for cracking down on the free speech of U.S. citizens.
That makes it essential for UT and all Texans who value free speech to stand in defense of it. Last year, in a lengthy statement affirming their commitment to free speech, the UT Board of Regents concluded: 'The UT System and the UT institutions have a solemn responsibility not only to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it.'
That moment is here.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Opinion: UT must defend free speech, protect student visas