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The Trump administration has revoked visas from 147 students studying at 48 colleges across the country as the president continues his crackdown on immigration.
As President Donald Trump and his administration carry out mass deportations across the U.S. and investigate schools for engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion practices, nearly 150 students have seen their visas revoked, particularly at regional public universities and small private colleges, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Some schools reported — like Dartmouth College, the University of Oregon and the University of Alabama — that one or two students were impacted. Some reported about a dozen students were impacted, like the University of California, Los Angeles and Arizona State University.
Others have seen more than two dozen students have their visas revoked, like California State University.
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However, the actual total number of students who have had visas revoked could be much larger. Inside Higher Ed reports that many colleges were hesitant to publicly confirm visa revocations due to anxiety about federal scrutiny and concerns about navigating a legal gray area.
While earlier arrests seen as Colombia, Tufts and the University of Alabama were focused on students active in pro-Palestinian campus activism, the latest wave of revocations appears to have little to do with political activity. Indeed, college officials say they suspect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are combing traffic violation databases to find students, Inside Higher Ed reports.
This comes after ICE agents detained Felipe Zapata Velásquez, a 27-year-old from Colombia and a third-year University of Florida student during a traffic stop in Gainesville late last month.
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“An international UF student here on an F-1 visa has become the Trump Admin’s latest kidnapping victim,” Florida Representative Maxwell Frost wrote in a statement. “Despite the fact that he was in the process of renewing his visa, Felipe Zapata Velasquez is being held at the Krome Detention Center and his family hasn’t heard from him since April 1.”
Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, tells the Associated Press that “none of this is regular practice.”
Like Zapata Velàsquez, many of these students are on F-1 visas, which students obtain by being admitted to a school in the U.S. and proving they have enough financial support to complete their degree. They must also remain in good academic standing throughout their studies.
The Trump administration has also targeted students involved in pro-Palestinian activism, like Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who led protests at the New York City school last year.
Now, Elora Mukherjee, an immigration lawyer and the director of Columbia Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, told Insider Higher Ed that students’ fear “is escalating week by week.”
