How International Students Are Navigating Immigration Troubles Under the Trump Administration

Yahoo

29-04-2025

United States of Suppression is a running series documenting the recent crackdown on dissent and protests in the U.S.
When Momodou Taal, a British Gambian PhD student at Cornell University, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in March, alleging that the federal government was violating his constitutional rights, he said he found himself under siege in more ways than one. 'I was basically on house arrest,' he tells Teen Vogue. 'I didn't see sunlight for, like, two and a half weeks…. I didn't feel so good outside.'
Taal had taken refuge in a friend's apartment, and carefully rehearsed potential scenarios with them; the friend also agreed to serve as his designated responder, someone prepared to document any encounter with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and alert his lawyers in the event of a raid. Taal's legal team advised him to sleep with their phone numbers on him, plus his essential medications, and to disable face ID on his phone to prevent law enforcement from accessing his personal data.
'I even made a video, [one] of those videos that say, 'If you're watching this, I've been taken by ICE,'' Taal recalls, underscoring the preparations required to navigate life as an international student in a climate of fear.
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Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Taal had been a pro-Palestine activist, and faced disciplinary consequences from Cornell as a result. In a recent lawsuit, he accused the Trump administration of violating his First and Fifth Amendment rights through two recent executive orders targeting noncitizens for their speech, with one of the orders specifically focused on students and staff in higher education. With ICE agents actively requesting his 'surrender,' Taal ultimately announced on March 31 that he had chosen to leave the country voluntarily.
A heightened state of alert has become a distressing reality for many noncitizen students, especially those, like Taal, who are outspoken on political issues. After President Trump took office, his administration attempted to revoke the visas of thousands of international students, prompting some to leave the country and 'self-deport.' The administration abruptly reversed course on April 25, amid a flurry of lawsuits, but students say it seems clear that political dissent may now trigger legal consequences ranging from surveillance to deportation.
Immigration attorneys have been overwhelmed with students seeking their services. 'I have never seen anything quite like this,' says Memphis-based immigration attorney Adam Cohen.
Elora Mukherjee, head of Columbia University's Immigrants' Rights Clinic, says her team is flooded with inquiries from students who are trying to navigate the labyrinth of emerging ICE protocols. 'We've been inundated with students' requests for information about how they can protect themselves and their loved ones from ICE, how they can re-enter the country safely, whether they should travel abroad, and how they can navigate expressing themselves freely in the shadow [of] the federal government's crackdown on speech,' she tells Teen Vogue via email.
Amid this demand, the Columbia International Students & Scholars Office has expanded staff resources and hours of operation in recent weeks, and the university launched a new hardship fund to help international students with unexpected costs.
This comes as the cost of legal services has created a real financial burden for a number of students, with some creating online fundraisers to help pay attorneys. The attorneys Teen Vogue spoke to say the cost of immigration-consultation services generally starts at a couple hundred dollars for a 30-minute session; but applying to switch visa status or pursue reinstatement typically sets students back thousands of dollars for a single filing, and most issues require more than that. Many students are at the mercy of lawyers offering pro bono services.
'Whatever we can get, we are getting through, like, mutual aid networks,' says one PhD student at an Ivy League university, who requested anonymity given safety concerns, adding that as a low-income student, it is difficult to take on the financial burden of legal services. 'I hope to one day be able to repay these attorneys in some capacity, but right now it is just whatever time people have,' they say, noting that part of the reason they were able to receive help was their privileged status as an Ivy League student. In some cases, professors at their university have been able to facilitate connections and introductions to attorneys for international students.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has specifically gone after Ivy League and other higher-education institutions, beginning by pulling $400 million of funding from Columbia University. The administration's funding threats have now expanded to include $175 million at the University of Pennsylvania, $510 million at Brown, $790 million at Northwestern, over $1 billion at Cornell, and a whopping $2.2 billion at Harvard. Princeton has lost almost $4 million of funding for research on climate change. These schools are now squarely in the administration's crosshairs, a reality that could place international students in the US under even greater threat.
These institutions have had varying responses: Harvard, for instance, has sued the Trump administration, challenging the cuts; Columbia, however, has signaled a potential openness to negotiating with the administration, which may influence how these policies ultimately affect its international-student population.
Several attorneys consulted by Teen Vogue say they have been making time to speak to international students entirely for free, knowing students have limited financial resources. Not all firms offer pro bono services, but some are adjusting their schedules and fees to accommodate students. Says Jacob Klaiman, an immigration lawyer in Chicago, 'Our firm directive recently has been to free up our schedule more for people who are having student visa issues.'
Some international students at these schools say the fear is deeply personal. Berna León, a Harvard visiting fellow from Spain, recently authored a Guardian piece titled, 'This Op-Ed Could Lead to Me Being Deported From the US.' He recalls that his parents called immediately, saying, 'Are you out of your mind? Why have you done this?'
Leo Gerdén, a Harvard undergraduate student from Sweden, shared a sentiment similar to León's in the school's newspaper, The Crimson, writing, 'As an international student, I am well aware that the opinions I express carry a certain degree of risk. Still, I refuse to remain silent.' He nervously called his mom the next morning to tell her about the op-ed, but 'she was mostly proud,' he says.
León has taken measures to safeguard himself, such as carrying his passport and immigration paperwork wherever he goes, whether that be a bar or the gym. 'It's ridiculous…," he tells Teen Vogue, "to have to carry all this paperwork just to prove that you're legally residing in a country.'
For many international students, these self-preservation measures have become exhausting. The anonymous Ivy League student above says further that they've essentially put themselves under voluntary house arrest and installed security cameras on the front and back entrances of their home. 'I need my immigration [lawyer's] phone number written on my body and hidden at all times,' the student adds. They typically have an in-person class only once a week, but even leaving home for that class has created stress: 'I asked people to drop me off, and I asked to be picked up right after, because I am so scared to be outside.'
Several students have even moved out of university housing, especially with reports that some schools might be complying with requests from ICE. 'We made sure whoever [stayed] with me [was] a US citizen," Taal says. "[You don't want ICE to come] and get a two-for-one deal.'
This aligns, in part, with the kind of precautionary advice that immigration lawyers tell Teen Vogue they've been offering. 'I've been telling people to have memorized the phone number of someone in the United States — preferably a citizen — to have them call us,' says Klaiman, emphasizing the importance of having someone on the outside who can act quickly if detention occurs.
In Taal's case, he and his lawyer took it a step further, ensuring his designated responder would be ready to document the encounter and track his whereabouts if ICE agents showed up.
Immigration attorney Ashwin Sharma says the anxiety he sees in his clients is driven by the sweeping nature by which policies are being applied. 'The immigration policy is a very broad discretion. Past administrations may not have utilized certain components, but this administration is weaponizing them eagerly,' he explains. And many of the requests he receives come from stressed students just calling for reassurance: 'Some [students tell] me they couldn't sleep because they were worried.'
The physical effects of the stress have been very real for those affected, including the anonymous Ivy League student, who says they 'have developed high blood pressure, chronic migraines, and sleep problems' as a result of the ongoing political situation in the US. 'My doctor and I just had to have a conversation, to say, 'Listen, there are things that are causing my blood pressure to be this high that will not just go away with exercise…. that I just know is tied to me being in this place.'
Some of the lawyers Teen Vogue spoke to predict that the current crackdown will have enduring consequences. Seattle immigration attorney Kripa Upadhyay, once an international student herself, says she's having conversations with parents whose children were accepted into universities for the upcoming fall. '[They're] calling me and saying, 'Should we even go ahead with this?'' she says, adding that some students are seeking opportunities in countries like the United Kingdom or Canada instead.
Abdullah Shahid Sial, a Harvard student from Pakistan who was recently elected undergraduate student-body co-president for the next academic year, says there's already a palpable shift in campus dynamics too. 'What I've been seeing around campus is fear like I've never seen before. People are extremely frightened to participate in any form of organized gathering that expresses dissent — not just [about] the Middle East, but [against the Trump] administration,' he explains.
Sial, who has been outspoken about international-student safety under the Trump administration, knows there's a possibility he'll receive a Department of Homeland Security notice revoking his visa, but he remains committed to standing up for his beliefs: 'If I don't speak right now, I'm setting a precedent for myself to bend down… when times are tough, and that's not who I am.'
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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