The status of international students has been thrown into doubt in recent weeks as the federal government revokes student visas from those studying in the U.S.
An email sent last week by the director of International Student and Scholar Services at Texas A&M and obtained by The Texas Tribune includes details of 11 students affected by the quiet revocation of their student visas.
They no longer appear to be eligible to remain legally in the U.S., according to a federal database. And according to the Tribune’s reporting, one of the students affected has already left the country. Eight of the students are currently enrolled; three have already graduated.
Since that email, the number of A&M international students affected by these quiet revocations has risen to 15.
Little else is known, but A&M is far from alone. In late March, you may have seen that viral video of a Ph.D. student from Tufts University outside of Boston being stopped in the street and physically detained by a swarm of immigration officials.
According to Inside Higher Ed, more than 500 international student visas have been revoked, including some at UT Austin.
Liam Knox, who reports for Inside Higher Ed, said some of the first visas to be revoked appear to have been done so in response to political speech and campus protest.
“But that focus has dissipated. The dragnet has expanded to be kind of indiscriminate. It’s difficult to draw any patterns,” he said. “Students are having their visas revoked sometimes for what seems like political speech; their visa revocations will have been justified as of this vague foreign policy threat.
“But way more often than that lately, it’s been international students who have minor criminal infractions, either recently or from in some cases many years ago, often traffic violations. Or more and more I’m hearing from international student offices, they have no idea why these students’ visas are being terminated, and there’s no indication telling them or the students why.”
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Student visas are designed to grant international students access to the U.S. during their course of study.
“A lot of the students we’re talking about here on F1 and J1 visas, those are short-term visas – they’re not work visas – and that’s how they enter the country,” Knox said. “They have to be enrolled in classes and have proof of that in order to stay.
“Usually if a visa is revoked, which prior to a few months ago was a fairly uncommon occurrence, but did happen, students would still be able to remain in the country. Their legal residency status would not be terminated simultaneously. In fact, it’s kind of unprecedented for immigration officials to revoke both a student’s visa status and legal residency status.”
When students lose their visa status, Knox said, it isn’t always clear what happens next.
“Some [students] have been confronted, detained, and in some cases abducted very forcibly by ICE agents,” he said. “In more cases than that, students are meeting with immigration attorneys trying to figure out their next steps. Many are leaving voluntarily. I’ve heard many dozens fleeing because they don’t want to face the potential of an ICE confrontation or a prolonged stay in a detention center.”
Knox said he’s spoken to international students who are trying to figure out what they’ve done wrong, but answers aren’t forthcoming.
“They need the help of their universities,” he said. “And the universities, they aren’t in a much better position to inform and advise. So it’s a very fraught and difficult situation all around.”
