The Trump administration has revoked hundreds of student visas in nearly every corner of the country as part of a vast immigration crackdown – and few universities know why.
More than 1,000 international students and recent graduates at more than 130 schools in the US have had their visas or statuses revoked in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System this year, according to university statements and spokespeople.
Colleges and universities in 40 states have confirmed the visa and status termination of their students to CNN.
At Middle Tennessee State University, six students from countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East had their visas revoked, according to university spokesperson Jimmy Hart.
“The University does not know the specific reason(s) for the visa status changes, only that they were changed within the federal database that monitors them,” Hart said.
Several university statements said the government did not provide a reason for its actions. In most cases, universities discovered the visa revocations by checking the system. Only a handful of universities said they knew why their students’ visas or SEVIS accounts were terminated.
“In the last few weeks, the US Department of Homeland Security has revoked the visa status of four international students at the UO based on unspecified criminal charges,” said Eric Howald, a spokesperson for the University of Oregon. “The university was not informed in advance and has not been given details about the nature of the criminal charges.”
It is unclear if all the students whose visas have been terminated have to immediately leave the country or can stay to continue their education.
International students – including at prestigious American universities – have been targeted amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. Cases have ranged from high-profile cases involving alleged support of terror organizations to relatively minor offenses like years-old misdemeanors.
Federal officials have not specified the reasons why many students’ visas are being revoked, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said that some behavior, including participating in protests, will not be tolerated.
“They’re here to go to class. They’re not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine our universities,” Rubio said.
The University of California, Los Angeles, told CNN that 12 of its current or recent graduates were impacted by the terminations. “The termination notices indicate that all terminations were due to violations of the terms of the individuals’ visa programs,” the university’s chancellor Julio Frenk said in a statement he sent to the university community.
Students sue the Trump administration
While many students have not received a straightforward answer from the White House and DHS about their status removal, a new federal lawsuit against the Trump administration seeks to stop student visa revocations and reinstate those that have already been revoked.
The lawsuit, filed at the US District Court of Northern Georgia in Atlanta, currently includes the cases of 133 foreign nationals, including students from India, China, Colombia, Mexico and Japan, according to the complaint and Dustin Baxter, one of the filing attorneys.
The students are not identified by name in the complaint, but rather by a “pseudonym due to fear of retaliation by Defendants.” The lawsuit names three Trump administration officials as defendants: US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons.
The complaint alleges that ICE has abruptly and unlawfully terminated the students’ legal status in the United States “(…) stripping them of their ability to pursue their studies and maintain employment in the United States and risking their arrest, detention, and deportation.”
The White House and DHS have not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
The administration, the suit says, has terminated their status by removing the students from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) used by the Department of Homeland Security to maintain information mainly regarding international students and their status in the country.
In late March, Rubio said that more than 300 visas, “primarily student visas, some visitor visas,” had been revoked.
Perhaps the most high-profile deportation case of foreign nationals accused of supporting terrorist organizations involves Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate who is a legal permanent US resident through a green card.
CNN’s Rafael Romo, Arriyanna Brookins, Jillian Sykes, Julianna Bragg, Maria Aguilar Prieto, Rebekah Riess, and Yash Roy contributed to this report.
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