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.”#FreeMahmoud #FreeSpeech Click to post on
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 In late March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed media reports that at least 300 visas had been revoked in its “Catch and Revoke” program, and said that number would rise daily.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.
