This Is What Mass Deportation Looks Like: Trump Administration Terminating Student Visas to Purge International Students

Access online version of this press release HERE

Washington, DC — “Nearly 300 Students Have Had Visas Revoked and Could Face Deportation,” the New York Times reported:

“Nearly 300 international students were abruptly stripped of their ability to stay in the United States in recent days, according to universities and media reports, sowing fear among students and confusion at schools scrambling to help students facing detention and possible deportation … But lawyers said the Trump administration had often given no reason at all, leaving them to guess why students were targeted.”

The story puts into the big picture what numerous college campuses and local media have been reporting: beyond the headlines and in conjunction with the administration’s broader anti-immigration dragnet, the Trump administration is seeking to evict foreign students.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“This is what mass deportation looks like. Alongside high profile cases and major Trump administration announcements are the insidious everyday examples of what they are up to and who they are targeting. The administration’s efforts to detain and deport long-residing immigrants from communities across the country fits alongside their efforts to revoke visas from international students, including for undisclosed reasons, and to purge and keep out as many immigrants as possible. All of it comes at a cost for America, from depriving our economy of talented workers to spreading fear on college campuses to chilling future interest from foreign students from studying in America.”

A sampling of recent state and local examples of the administration targeting foreign students include:

• WGBH Boston reports, “UMass, Harvard student visas revoked in ‘new stage’ of Trump immigration crackdown,” stating that, “Seventeen current and former international students from Harvard, UMass Boston and UMass Amherst had their visas revoked amid the Trump administration’s ongoing push to deport international students, according to announcements from the universities’ leadership over the weekend.”

• Two Dartmouth students have had their F-1 statuses terminated: The Dartmouth reports, “Ph.D student Xiaotian Liu GR’s F-1 student status was abruptly revoked by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on April 4, according to a press release from the New Hampshire chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. A second student’s record was also terminated, according to a statement from a College spokesperson.”

• University of Minnesota graduate student detained by ICE: NBC News reports, “A graduate student at the University of Minnesota was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Thursday at an off-campus residence, the school said in a statement.”

• University of Florida student detained by ICE and transported to Miami Detention Center: Miami New Times reports,” On March 28, Felipe Zapata Velásquez, a 27-year-old food and resource economics international student in his junior year, was arrested by the Gainesville Police Department for driving with an expired license and registration tag, according to police records. ICE took him to Jacksonville, where deportation proceedings began, his mother told the Colombian news channel NTN24.”

• ICE officers detain University of Alabama doctoral student: The Guardian states, “There was an outcry on campus at the University of Alabama on Thursday after US immigration authorities detained a doctoral student – an event which campus officials confirmed on Wednesday.”