ICE’d out: Over 6,000 students lose study rights in MAGA crackdown on student visas

Thousands of US student visas have been revoked by the Trump administration due to alleged criminal offences and overstays, as well as “support for terrorism”, according to the US State Department.  

As part of tightened oversight on international students, the State Department has received directives encouraging vigilance in reviewing applications from prospective scholars with a history of political activism, including expanded social media vetting to observe ideological views.  

Consular officers were instructed to review applicants’ online activity for “any indications of hostility towards the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States”. 

The State Department has insisted, however, that the “vast majority” of visas were lost due to various criminal offences, such as assault, driving under the influence, and burglary.  

Between 200 and 300 students have had their visas revoked over allegations of ‘support for terrorism’

Homeland Security Spokesperson Trina McLaughlin commented that the Trump administration, which has now been in office for eight months, doesn’t “deport people based on ideology”. 

Addressing lawmakers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that the Trump administration would “continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities”.  

Between 200 and 300 students have had their visas revoked over allegations of “support for terrorism”, although the State Department declined to specify which activities or organisations this relates to. 

Fox News reported that these specific visa withdrawals were likely the result of reviews into the study status of pro-Palestinian activists, a process Rubio acknowledged was ongoing last May.  

This suggestion aligns with arguments presented by the federal government during its ongoing disputes with America’s elite academic institutions, including the universities of Harvard and Columbia.  

35 Democrat Senators [signed] a letter calling on [Secretary 0f State Marco Rubio and other officials] to reverse the revocation of student visas

Columbia has been accused by the US Department of Health and Human Services of “deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students” since 7 October 2023.  

Two students among many who have been affected by the Trump administration’s new directives are Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate of Columbia University, and Rümeysa Öztürk, a PhD student at Tufts University.  

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers directly cited the President’s executive order on antisemitism as the reason for Khalil’s arrest, while Öztürk co-wrote an article for her university newspaper, The Tufts Daily, calling for the institution to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”. 

Democratic officials have attacked the federal government’s actions, with 35 Democrat Senators signing a letter calling on Rubio, as well as the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, to reverse the revocation of student visas.  

The  letter stated that students “remain unsure of what, if any, steps they may take to maintain their status and safeguard themselves from immigration enforcement”. 

Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, extended this criticism, telling the Secretary of State that the efforts to revoke visas constituted “a fundamental attack on freedom”.