Some Push Back as Trump Revokes Hundreds of Student Visas

More than 1,000 students have had their visas to live and study in the United States revoked since the Trump administration began in January, and the lawsuits and public rebukes are starting to pile up. 

On Monday, a group of students in Georgia sued, arguing the Trump administration illegally terminated their visas, The Georgia Recorder reported. And a coalition of Democratic-led states asked a federal judge to prevent the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens. The states’ filing is part of a legal challenge from the Middle East Studies Association and the American Association of University Professors over what they call the “ideological deportation policy.” 

The government countered in court filings that no such policy exists and argued that the case should be dismissed because the plaintiffs failed to prove they have standing to sue. But the states wrote in their amicus brief that revoking the visas “inflicts concrete, measurable harm on Amici States.”

“This policy, which strips noncitizen students and faculty of their lawful immigration status, threatens our academic institutions, economic prosperity, and global leadership in education and scientific innovation,” the states argued in the filing. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of students have protested on campuses to make their voices heard. Universities, generally, are pledging to support their international students amid these threats to their legal status in this country. But some are taking a more forceful stand. 

Harvard Kennedy School dean Jeremy M. Weinstein wrote in a message late last week that “the continued revocation of student visas without notice or explanation deeply concerns me,” according to The Harvard Crimson.

At Rice University, President Reginald DesRoches wrote that international students are “fundamental, vital, cherished members of the Rice community, and right now, they need our particular support.” Three students at Rice along with two graduates have lost their visas.

“I know this news is unsettling for all of us, and it is especially surprising and distressing to students who had already obtained all the necessary permissions to fulfill their academic dreams in this country and at Rice,” he wrote, adding that Rice “will safeguard their dignity and support their aspirations because that is what this difficult moment requires of a great university.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth wrote in a campus message Monday that the “threat of unexpected visa revocations will make it less likely that top talent from around the world will come to the US—and that will damage American competitiveness and scientific leadership for years to come.” (Nine current or former students have had their visas revoked and one is suing, according to the message.)

Kornbluth noted that MIT is in “the business of attracting and supporting exceptionally talented people, the kind of people with the drive, skill and daring to see, discover and invent things no one else can.”

“To find those rare people, we open ourselves to talent from every corner of the United States and from around the globe,” she continued. “MIT is an American university, proudly so—but we would be gravely diminished without the students and scholars who join us from other nations.”