Trump administration continues to target international students. What to know and what could be next.

NBC News

a day ago

Lawsuits, next-day countersuits, backtracking and mass confusion. International students find themselves at the center of a dizzying legal landscape as the Trump administration continues to crack down on immigration.
Here's what to know as the Trump administration keeps attempting to put up legal barriers to international students' ability to study in the U.S.
What's the latest?
Just Wednesday, a judge granted Harvard an extension on an injunction that blocked the administration's attempt last week to stop the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign-born students.
An estimated 4,700 or more foreign-born students have been impacted since the Trump administration began revoking visas and terminating legal statuses in March. A few have also been detained in high-profile cases.
In just the past two weeks, students across the country were granted a nationwide injunction against the administration. Some scholars have been released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well. Meanwhile the State Department announced that it is 'aggressively' targeting an additional group of Chinese scholars out of national security concerns.
But in spite of its legal losses, the federal government has doubled down on its efforts to target international students. On Tuesday, the Trump administration stopped scheduling new student visa interviews for those looking to study in the U.S., according to an internal cable seen by NBC News. Meanwhile, the State Department is preparing to expand its social media screening of applicants, the cable said.
The next day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the government would be looking to revoke the visas of Chinese students 'with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.'
It's still unclear what 'critical fields' the administration will be looking into and what types of connections to the CCP are under scrutiny. The State Department referred NBC News to comments by spokesperson Tammy Bruce during a news briefing Thursday in which Bruce said the department does not discuss the details of its visa process due to privacy concerns.
'We use every tool that we have to vet and to make sure we know who's coming in,' Bruce 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 Trump administration revoke the visas and statuses of international students?
For months, there was mass confusion among schools and international students about the criteria the government used to abruptly terminate visas and statuses, with little to no notice to students. But in late April, the Department of Homeland Security revealed at a hearing that it used the National Crime Information Center, an FBI-run computerized index that includes criminal history information.
The agency said fewer than two dozen employees ran the names of 1.3 million foreign-born students through the index, populating 6,400 'hits.' And from there, many students experienced terminations of their records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which maintains information about nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors.
The method was sharply criticized by legal and policy experts, who pointed out that the database relies on cities, counties, states and other sources to voluntarily report their data. This means that it may not have the final dispositions of cases, potentially leading to errors in identifying students.
At another hearing in April, Elizabeth D. Kurlan, an attorney for the Justice Department, said that going forward, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not be terminating statuses based solely on findings in the crime information center. She also told the court that ICE would be restoring the legal status of international students who had their records terminated until the agency developed a new framework for revocations.
Shortly afterward, an internal memo to all Student and Exchange Visitor Program personnel, which is under ICE jurisdiction, showed an expanded list of criteria for the agency to terminate foreign-born students' legal status in the U.S., including a 'U.S. Department of State Visa Revocation (Effective Immediately).' Though students would typically have the right to due process and defend themselves before their status is terminated, visa revocation itself is now grounds for the termination of status, according to the memo.
The administration has also taken aim at students who have been active in pro-Palestine protests, including Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, who were both detained in March. Öztürk has since been released from ICE custody.
'Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,' Rubio said at a news conference in March.
Has anyone been successful in challenging the Trump administration?
Students across the U.S. from Georgia to South Dakota have been winning their lawsuits against the Trump administration, with judges siding with plaintiffs and allowing them to stay in the U.S.
Last week, a judge issued an injunction blocking the Trump administration from terminating the legal statuses of international students at universities across the U.S. It's the first to provide relief to students nationwide.
The day after the Trump administration terminated Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification — a move that would force the university's foreign students, roughly a fourth of its student body, to either transfer or lose their legal status — the Ivy League school sued the administration. And hours later, a judge issued an injunction.
In addition to Öztürk, others who were detained are no longer in ICE custody, including Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri and Mohsen Mahdawi, a U.S. permanent resident who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The judge in Khan Suri's case ruled that his detention was in violation of the First Amendment, which protects the right to free speech, and the Fifth Amendment, which protects the right to due process.
What might be next for international students?
Though the recent nationwide injunction provides some relief, students can still be vulnerable to visa revocation. Legal experts say the temporary restraining order blocks the government from arresting or detaining students, or terminating their legal statuses. But it's possible that visas can still be revoked. And many expect the Trump administration to hit back.
'This is a federal district court decision. It is not a final decision, and it seems likely that the executive branch will appeal this decision,' Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.
Mukherjee also added that the Chinese international students referred to in Rubio's new statement are likely not protected by the injunction either.
'What they're likely to claim in court in defense of this policy is that the secretary of state and the executive branch deserves deference with regard to quote, unquote, foreign affairs,' Mukherjee said.
However, with backlash already brewing, Mukherjee said she expects that the policy will be challenged legally, with immigration attorneys and activists arguing that it is unconstitutional.
Legal experts said that with many decisions surrounding international students' fate far from decided, foreign-born scholars should first and foremost remain in the country. She also said it's important to seek legal counsel in the event that students are also eligible for other forms of relief, including asylum or other humanitarian visas.
Razeen Zaman, director of immigrant rights at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said it's particularly important for American citizens to speak out against the immigration policies on behalf of foreign-born students, as many of these students may not be able to push back themselves.
'You have to have a certain amount of resources to be able to do that. You have to have a certain amount of connections. There's even some people who are too afraid to seek counsel,' Zaman said. 'U.S. citizens have the most protections. … And the reality is, even if you're stopped at the border, they do have to still let you in as a U.S. citizen.'
And given how the Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants from four Latin American countries, Zaman said, it's likely that even more groups will be targeted without fierce advocacy and protest.
'This is about the First Amendment today. It's Chinese people, the CCP, whoever they decide is tied to the Chinese government,' Zaman said.