As the Donald Trump administration in the United States steps up its deportation policy against illegal immigrants, U.S. media outlets including CNN reported on the 10th (local time) that even international students who legally obtained visas and are residing in the country are having their visas canceled and being expelled.
CNN reported that after reviewing court documents, lawyer statements, and notices from dozens of universities nationwide, it was confirmed that more than 340 students, professors, and researchers had their visas canceled this year.
In the early days of Trump’s second term administration, there were many cases similar to Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested after leading a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University. According to immigration law specialists, recently, the number of students facing visa cancellations and deportation threats due to minor offenses has increased, and some have been targeted for deportation without any reason.
Ksenia Petrova, a Russian national who worked as a researcher at Harvard Medical School, had her visa canceled and was detained in February when returning to the U.S. from France because she failed to declare frog embryos she was carrying for research purposes.
Petrova’s lawyer stated that the failure to properly declare at customs was a mistake, but the punishment was excessive, saying, "The detention is not only unnecessary but also unjust." He also mentioned that since she had publicly opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the past, she would be immediately arrested if deported to Russia.
Last month in Los Angeles, California, protestors demonstrated against the Trump administration's immigration policies. Photo by Getty Images, Yonhap News.
NBC reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the day before that it would establish a task force (TF) to monitor social media activities of immigrants, including foreign students, to identify anti-Semitic tendencies. This TF plans to investigate reasons for visa cancellations among 1.5 million foreign students studying in the U.S.
Elora Mukherjee, head of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, said that most students targeted for visa cancellations come from non-white racial backgrounds, adding, "Current U.S. immigration policy appears to be driven by xenophobia, white supremacy, and racism."
The Trump administration bases the legal grounds for canceling student visas on the Immigration and Nationality Act enacted in 1952. This provision had been rarely used before and stipulates that the Secretary of State can deport non-citizens if they are deemed to potentially cause "serious adverse consequences" to the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Rubio said last month that more than 300 student visas had been canceled and stated, "Whenever we find these lunatics, we will cancel their visas."
When NBC inquired about cases where the reasons for visa cancellations were unclear, the U.S. Department of State responded, "Due to privacy concerns, we do not discuss individual visas," adding, "What we can say for sure is that visas are canceled daily to protect the borders and ensure community safety."
Jeff Joseph, the next president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, pointed out, "All these tools in immigration law are being used with the purpose of causing international students to suffer confusion without proper legal support and eventually leave the United States."
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