First Trump Targeted Pro-Palestine Students. Now All Kinds of Foreign Students Are at Risk.

The Intercept

08-04-2025

The Trump administration is expanding its campaign against international students to target not just those active in pro-Palestine advocacy, but also students entirely uninvolved in protests and campus activism.
With little or no justification, the Trump administration is revoking the visas and immigration statuses of hundreds of international students under the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, leaving them vulnerable to detention and deportation, according to attorneys representing international scholars who have filed new lawsuits against the Trump administration.
'It's a concerted effort to go after people who are from countries and religions that the Trump administration wants to get out of the country.'
In some cases, the government has gone after students with minor infractions or misdemeanors on their record, or, for others, no criminal history at all.
Several immigration attorneys have also told The Intercept that the bulk of their clients are from Muslim-majority countries or other countries in Asia and Africa.
It will take days for immigration attorneys to sift through the waves of new cases. In late March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed media reports that at least 300 visas had been revoked in its 'Catch and Revoke' program, and said that number would rise daily. Immigration attorneys who spoke with The Intercept on Monday estimate the number of student visa revocations may have risen into the thousands in recent days.
While the Trump administration's most-publicized attacks on students have revolved around free speech rights with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of students for protesting or writing opinion journalism, the recent rush of revocations aligns with Trump's wider, xenophobic campaign against immigrants and immigration.
'It's a concerted effort to go after people who are from countries and religions that the Trump administration wants to get out of the country,' said Johnny Sinodis, a San Francisco-based immigration attorney who filed a lawsuit on Monday in California against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of a targeted student.
This new string of attacks on international students began over the weekend, ensnaring students at a wide swath of colleges and universities — such as Colorado State University, St. Cloud State University, North Carolina State University, Kent State University, and throughout the University of California system in Los Angeles, Berkeley, Irvine, and San Diego. Many of the ensnared students do not attend universities that have previously been targeted by the Trump administration over allegations of 'antisemitism,' such as Columbia, Tufts, or Cornell.
In one such case, Xiaotian Liu, a doctoral candidate studying computer science at Dartmouth College and a Chinese citizen, received an email from school administrators on Friday that the Department of Homeland Security had terminated his student status, according to a new complaint filed Monday in a federal district court in New Hampshire against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Director Todd Lyons.
To remain within the U.S. to study, international students in the program must maintain their student status through an online database run by DHS called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. Administrators told Liu that the government had terminated his SEVIS account, but the government offered little explanation why. Instead, the government SEVIS database vaguely stated that Liu had been 'identified in a criminal records check and/or has had their visa revoked.'
Both explanations were a shock to Liu since he had no criminal history and had been unaware of any change to his student visa, the complaint said. Liu, who has been living in New Hampshire since graduating from Wake Forest University with a bachelor's and master's degrees, also had not participated in any protests in the U.S. or elsewhere, the suit said. Without his SEVIS account, Liu can no longer receive his Ph.D. program stipend or work as a research assistant, hurting his ability to earn money. It's still unclear whether Liu's F-1 student visa, which allows him to enter the U.S. when traveling, has also been revoked.
In a declaration filed in court, Liu said he fears being arrested and imprisoned in far-off places throughout the country, mentioning Louisiana, where the government has been transferring many recent student detainees. Attorneys in other cases have stated that such hasty transfers, which occur without notice to counsel, are meant to isolate students from their legal representation and seek favorable rulings from more conservative districts.
'It's an unconscionable position for him to be in,' said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director at the ACLU of New Hampshire, which is presenting Liu in his case. 'All he wants to do is complete his studies in peace — and now he has to live under the fear of being detained by immigration enforcers in the United States.'
'He's never committed a crime, never had an issue.'
Bissonnette said Liu's case represents 'significant escalation' in the Trump administration's tactics of cracking down on immigrants. The lawsuit called the termination of Liu's SEVIS account 'unlawful' and argued that the government violated his due process rights in revoking Liu's student status without notice or a proper hearing, which is required by DHS policy. The revocation of an F-1 visa is not grounds to revoke a student's SEVIS status, the complaint said. The suit asks the court to force the government to provide evidence for the revocation, reinstate his SEVIS account, and prevent the government from detaining Liu.
'He's never committed a crime, never had an issue, and now to have to live under the fear of having all of that ripped away without reason is just deeply concerning and troubling,' Bissonnette said.
The DHS did not immediately respond to The Intercept's requests for comment.
Since the start of the student crackdown with the arrest of Columbia student leader Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian, the Trump administration has appeared to have a special focus on students from Muslim-majority countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. In recent days, the dragnet has appeared to widen to include students from other countries such as India, South Korea, and China, attorneys who are also suing the Trump administration told The Intercept. Others from across the U.S., including an immigration attorney representing international students at Arizona State University, have made similar observations of the apparent targeting of students from Muslim-majority countries.
'This is ultimately an attack on academia, on higher institutions.'
In two student cases in southern California — one in the Inland Empire and another in Orange County — the government revoked the F-1 visa and SEVIS accounts in late March and early April, according to two separate lawsuits against DHS filed in tandem on Saturday in federal court in the Central District of California.
Both students are from predominantly Muslim countries, the lawsuits said, and both had not participated in any protests related to Palestine or other political issues. The students are identified only as 'Student Doe #1' and 'Student Doe #2,' out of fear of possible retaliation from the government. Last month, ICE began to seek the arrest of student activist and Cornell graduate student Momodou Taal after he sued the Trump administration.
Unlike in the case of Liu, the government provided the two students with a basis for the revocations. DHS accused each student of violating two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act: failure to maintain status and the so-called 'adverse foreign policy' provision, court documents said. Failure to maintain status means a student no longer has the ability to remain within the U.S. to finish their studies and may leave them vulnerable for deportation. The adverse foreign policy provision — essentially a claim that the immigrant's continued residence in the U.S. would harm American foreign policy aims — was also cited in the high-profile immigration cases of Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Badar Khan Suri, who were vocal in the Palestine solidarity movement. Also similar to other known cases, the government did not provide specific evidence to back its claims.
It 'appears to be designed to coerce students, including Plaintiff, into abandoning their studies and 'self-deporting' despite not violating their status.'
The Inland Empire student had 'a minor misdemeanor non-alcohol related driving conviction,' while the Orange County student had 'a minor speeding ticket and a misdemeanor alcohol related driving conviction,' court documents said. Even so, attorneys said such minor misdemeanors and infractions that are nonviolent and do not carry a potential sentence of more than one year are not reasonable grounds to revoke a student's visa or student status under SEVIS.
The lawsuits say the government's policy 'appears to be designed to coerce students, including Plaintiff, into abandoning their studies and 'self-deporting' despite not violating their status.'
Stacy Tolchin, a Pasadena-based immigration attorney representing the two California students said her firm took on at least 20 new cases in the past week alone, all of which involve students who have seen their visas and SEVIS accounts terminated. The majority of the students she has taken on as clients have been from Muslim-majority and 'non-white' countries, she said, adding that she has not seen or heard of cases involving international students from Europe.
'This is ultimately an attack on academia, on higher institutions — I think it's race-based,' Tolchin said.
Sinodis — who is on Khalil's legal team and whose firm, Van Der Hout, is preparing to represent four other students — said he has also noticed a specific focus on students from predominantly Muslim countries, or cases in which the student isn't from a non-Muslim majority country but is Muslim themself. Like Tolchin, he has not seen any cases of students from Europe, or even Australia or South Africa.
Most of his clients have been from the Middle East, he said, with some from Muslim-majority African countries. He said he and other attorneys have referred to the Trump administration's attacks as 'a shadow travel ban,' a reference to the first Trump administration's ban on U.S. travel for citizens of certain Muslim-majority countries. The current administration is expected to roll out a similar ban.
'There seems to be consensus that this is essentially like a shadow travel ban that's being enforced via the revocation of these student SEVIS accounts and the revocation of the F-1 visas,' Sinodis said.
His client, who is a former international student also from a predominantly Muslim country, had their SEVIS account terminated in late March without explanation beyond the government claiming they had failed to maintain their legal status and mentioned a criminal background check, according to a new lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco. The student had one previous 'low-level' misdemeanor arrest and conviction, which the student had disclosed to DHS when applying for a student visa, Sinodis said, adding that DHS had granted immigration accommodations for them in the past. The student, known in the complaint as 'John Doe' due to fear of government retaliation and being blacklisted by 'third parties,' had graduated in 2023 and had been authorized to work under the supervision of the Northern California school where they graduated.
'So it's insane now that ICE is turning around and saying that they can cancel his SEVIS for the same conduct that they've known about,' he said. His client's lawsuit also seeks the return of his SEVIS account and protection from ICE detention or transfer out of his Northern California jurisdiction.
Sinodis said he sees Trump's broadening attack against students as in line with his 'xenophobic' attacks on immigrants across the U.S. Since taking office in January, Trump's administration has manufactured immigrant crime narratives and defied court orders in his policy of mass arrest and deportation, which has seen hundreds imprisoned in El Salvador without due process. Despite Trump's defiance, Sinodis said he has been encouraged by a vast network of immigration attorneys coordinating in defense of immigrants in court.
'This is just further evidence that the Trump administration is going to continue trying to find ways to discriminate against immigrants — what we've seen in the last two months is, every week or so, there's a new tactic unveiled,' Sinodis said, 'and what's encouraging is that the immigration bar is really coordinated in fighting back and litigating this unlawful conduct.'