Hundreds of students, dozens of colleges hit by Trump's visa purge: What to know

Yahoo

10-04-2025

Hundreds of foreign students at dozens of colleges across the country have had their higher education experience turned upside down as the Trump administration has expanded its immigration crackdown beyond those involved in the pro-Palestinian protests.
International students are seeing their visas revoked for infractions as minor as traffic violations, while colleges are having to check immigration databases to find out whether their students are still allowed to be in the country.
Ivy League universities, state schools and community colleges have all been impacted as students decide whether to find legal counsel or leave the country before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) comes for them.
Here is what to know:
Exactly how many visas have been revoked is unknown because the State Department has declined requests to share numbers and some schools are too afraid to speak up.
An Inside Higher Ed tracker has the number of colleges and universities affected by the visa revocations at more than 80, including public and private institutions in a wide range of locations and sizes.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that more than 300 student visas have been revoked under the Trump administration, with more coming every day.
'We don't discuss individual visas because of the privacy issues involved,' State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday. 'We don't go into statistics or numbers; we don't go into the rationale for what happens with individual visas. What we can tell you is that the department revokes visas every day in order to secure our borders and to keep our community safe, and we'll continue to do so.'
The visa revocations began at big-name schools, such as Columbia University, and at least at first targeted students who were involved in pro-Palestinian protests. But it has expanded beyond that, with one University of Florida student detained by ICE after he was arrested for traffic violations.
The American Council on Education, along with 16 other groups representing a broad swath of higher education institutions, wrote a letter on April 4 requesting a briefing with the State Department on these actions.
'We seek clarity amidst reports that student visas are being revoked and records are being terminated in the Student Exchange Visitor Information System without additional information being shared with the institutions those students attend,' the letter reads.
'This includes the messages being sent to international students and scholars regarding their student visas being revoked, requesting that they self-deport, with no additional information about how to appeal this decision or verification to ensure that mistakes are not being made in identifying these individuals,' it added.
The way the federal government has gone about the revocation of visas is highly unusual and confusing — some argue by design.
'I think the strategy here is the same strategy that they're employing in their other enforcement actions, and that is, create fear, panic, hysteria … with the hopes that people will just leave, right? And we're seeing that happen. We're seeing students get scared and leave. They're dropping out school and they're going back home,' said Jeff Joseph, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The Trump administration is taking foreign students off of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a reporting system that gives information about international students to the Department of Homeland Security.
After the government has removed a student from the SEVIS system, it has been sending emails to the students telling them they have to go back to their home country, skipping the normal step of telling their university.
Some schools have begun checking SEVIS on a daily basis and found some of their students taken off without their knowledge.
'The UMass Amherst Office of Global Programs has been proactively monitoring the Department of Homeland Security's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) in order to ensure students are aware of any changes in their immigration status or their right to be in the United States. Until now, the University has never needed to check SEVIS in this manner,' the University of Massachusetts Amherst said after multiple students had their visas revoked without the school's knowledge.
However, someone having their information taken off SEVIS and having their visas revoked are two different things, making some students believe they need to leave the country before their visas are actually taken away.
'The SEVIS revocation does not terminate your status. It does not cause you to be out of status. It does not cause you to accrue unlawful presence. So, this whole argument that you have to leave is legally incorrect. And I think that's where we're seeing these challenges, the legal challenges,' Joseph said.
Advocates say students need to be vigilant, keep in contact with their school's international office and speak with a lawyer in the middle of all this uncertainty.
'If you're a foreign student and you're feeling uneasy about your situation … you should go have a checkup with a lawyer and pay for a consultation to just see what your options are,' Joseph said, especially referring to those who have a criminal history or have engaged in political activity, even on social media.
Some universities have offered legal counsel to international students who find themselves in this situation, given advice on how to find an immigration attorney and held seminars to ensure international students know their rights if they are approached by law enforcement.
And there are lawsuits challenging how the Trump administration is going about its plans to kick students out of the country.
'It's not like there's clear guidance coming out from the government and especially given that the government seems to be disregarding due process, campuses need to be really mindful about what the government is telling them to do. You want to be both in compliance and support students,' said Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.
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