Visa cancellations sow panic for international students as more than 1,000 fear deportation

Los Angeles Times

17-04-2025

WASHINGTON — At first, the bar association for immigration attorneys began receiving inquiries from a couple of students a day. These were foreigners studying in the U.S., and they'd discovered in early April that their legal status had been terminated with little notice. To their knowledge, none of the students had committed a deportable offense.
In recent days, the calls have begun flooding in. Hundreds of students have been calling to say they have lost legal status, seeking advice on what to do next.
'We thought it was going to be something that was unusual,' said Matthew Maiona, a Boston-based immigration attorney who is getting about six calls a day from panicked international students. 'But it seems now like it's coming pretty fast and furious.'
The speed and scope of the federal government's efforts to terminate the legal status of international students have stunned colleges across the country. Few corners of higher education have been untouched, as schools ranging from prestigious private universities, large public research institutions and tiny liberal arts colleges discover status terminations one after another among their students.
In California, the colleges include nearly every University of California campus, several California State University campuses, Santa Monica College, and private institutions such as Stanford, Chapman University and Claremont Graduate University. More than 120 visas in total have been revoked in California since late March, including at least a dozen at UCLA, 23 at UC Berkeley and six at Cal State Long Beach.
Nationally, at least 1,024 students at 160 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records. Advocacy groups collecting reports from colleges say hundreds more students could be caught up in the crackdown.
Around 1.1 million international students were in the United States last year — a source of essential revenue for tuition-driven colleges. International students are not eligible for federal financial aid, and their ability to pay tuition often factors into whether they will be admitted to American schools. Often, they pay full price.
California is home to the largest foreign student population in the country, with USC having the largest international population in the state at more than 17,000. The university has not confirmed visa revocations although staff, students and professors have said international students have been affected. UC Berkeley and UCLA are also among the list of California campuses with the largest international enrollments.
Many of the students losing their legal status are from India and China, which together account for more than half of the international students at American colleges. But the terminations have not been limited to those from any one part of the world, lawyers said.
Three students from Southern California are suing the Trump administration in federal court, saying their statuses were illegally terminated. The students filed their suits anonymously and did not identify their campuses. One person was on a post-graduate professional training visa after attending a Los Angeles campus, another student attends an Orange County university and the third student attends an Inland Empire campus.
The Los Angeles student's complaint says that his 'only criminal history is a misdemeanor charge that was later dismissed' and that 'he has no conviction for a crime of violence.'
The Orange County student's suit says that their only legal violations were a 'minor speeding ticket and a misdemeanor alcohol-related driving conviction' and that the State Department was aware of the alcohol charge before renewing their visa. The Inland Empire student's complaint says their 'only criminal history is a minor misdemeanor non-alcohol-related driving conviction.'
Four students from two Michigan universities are suing Trump administration officials after their F-1 student status was terminated last week. Their attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, Ramis Wadood, said the students never received a clear reason why.
'We don't know, and that's the scary part,' he said.
The students were informed of the status terminations by their universities via email, which came as a shock, Wadood said. The reason given was that there was a 'criminal records check and/or that their visa was revoked,' Wadood said, but none of them were charged or convicted of crimes. Some had either speeding or parking tickets, but one didn't have any, he said. Only one of the students had known their entry visa was revoked, Wadood said.
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel's war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges.
In New Hampshire, a federal judge last week granted a temporary restraining order to restore the status of a doctoral student at Dartmouth College, Xiaotian Liu. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Wisconsin issued a similar order, ruling the government could not take steps to detain or revoke the visa of a University of Wisconsin-Madison gradate student.
Two graduate students at Montana State University, Bozeman, on Tuesday were granted a temporary restraining order by a federal judge in Montana, restoring their terminated legal status and shielding them from efforts to remove them from the United States.
At many colleges, officials learned the legal immigration status of some international students had been terminated when staff checked a database managed by the Department of Homeland Security. In the past, college officials say, legal statuses typically were updated after colleges told the government the students were no longer studying at the school.
The system to track enrollment and movements of international students came under the control of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after 9/11, said Fanta Aw, Chief Executive of NAFSA, an association of international educators. She said recent developments have left students fearful of how quickly they can be on the wrong side of enforcement.
'You don't need more than a small number to create fear,' Aw said. 'There's no clarity of what are the reasons and how far the reach of this is.'
Her group says as many as 1,300 students have lost visas or had their status terminated, based on reports from colleges.
The Department of Homeland Security and State Department did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Foreigners who are subject to removal proceedings are usually sent a notice to appear in immigration court on a certain date, but lawyers say affected students have not received any notices, leaving them unsure of next steps to take.
Some schools have told students to leave the country to avoid the risk of being detained or deported. But some students have appealed the terminations and stayed in the United States while those are processed.
Still others caught in legal limbo aren't students at all. They had remained in the U.S. after graduation on 'optional practical training,' a one-year period — or up to three for science and technology graduates — that allows employment in the U.S. after completing an academic degree. During that time, a graduate works in their field and waits to receive their H-1B or other employment visas if they wish to keep working in the United States.
Around 242,000 foreigners in the U.S. are employed through optional practical training. About 500,000 are pursuing graduate degrees, and another 342,000 are undergraduate students.
Among the students who have filed lawsuits is a Georgia Tech doctoral student who is supposed to graduate on May 5, with a job offer to join the faculty. His attorney, Charles Kuck, said the student was likely targeted for termination because of an unpaid traffic fine from when the student lent his car to a friend. Ultimately, the violation was dismissed.
'We have case after case after case exactly like that, where there is no underlying crime,' said Kuck, who is representing 17 students in the federal lawsuit. He said his law firm has heard from hundreds of students.
'These are kids who now, under the Trump administration, realize their position is fragile,' he said. 'They've preyed on a very vulnerable population. These kids aren't hiding. They're in school.'
Some international students have been adapting their daily routines.
A doctoral student from China at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said she has begun carrying around her passport and immigration paperwork at the advice of the university's international student office. The student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by authorities, said she has been distressed to see the terminations even for students like her without criminal records.
'That is the most scary part because you don't know whether you're going to be the next person,' she said.
Ma, Seminera and Keller write for the Associated Press. Kaleem is a Times staff writer.