Since Donald Trump’s second term in office on January 20, 2025, immigration officials have revoked hundreds of students’ visas, with several also being detained.
Many of the targets of the visa revocations and arrests are students who participated in pro-Palestine protests which erupted on campuses across the country in 2024 amid Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. Others are people who have shown support for Gaza on social media or have more indirect ties to Palestine.
The Trump administration alleges that these students spread anti-Semitism and pro-Hamas sentiment on campus – a claim students, lawyers and activists have all rebutted. Many of the most well-known US protests against the Gaza war have involved Jewish activists and organizations.
Others have had visas removed after minor legal infractions – a speeding ticket or other traffic violations, for instance.
What we know about the number of universities they cover, the frequency of visa revocations, and some of the students who have been targeted:
How many students have had their visas revoked?
US Secretary of State March Rubio claimed that the administration had revoked 300 student visas by the end of March.
But the real number is higher – much higher.
Estimates vary. At the higher end is the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s count, according to which more than 4, 700 students have been removed from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement-maintained database known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (SEVIS).
Yet even more conservative tabulations suggest a figure that is comfortably greater than 1,000. The National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA) estimates that as of April 17, there are reports of about 1, 400 students who now face deportation.
1, 489 students had lost their visas as of April 17, according to Inside Higher Ed, a publication with a focus on higher education in the US.
How many universities have been affected?
More than 240 US universities and colleges have had student visas suspended, according to Inside Higher Ed’s count.
Colleges affected include private universities such as Harvard and Stanford, large public colleges and institutions such as Ohio State University and the University of Maryland, as well as some small arts colleges.
What are the options for revoked visas and why?
The Trump administration claims it is trying to stop activists from taking over campuses.
“We won’t be importing activists into the United States,” he said. They’re here to study. They are arriving for class. They’re not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine the – our universities”, Rubio said on March 28.
However, many students have reported that they were given no notice of their legal status in the US.
Several among them, like Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi , and Momodou Taal, were active on social media in pro-Palestine protests on campuses.
Others have been denied visas in some cases due to past traffic violations or, in some cases, without any clear justification, according to Mohammad Ali Syed, who leads an immigration practice group in Washington, DC.
“This widespread action has led to legal challenges and raised concerns about due process and the impact on US higher education institutions”, said Syed, who emphasised that international students ought to consult with immigration lawyers promptly to explore legal remedies and protect their rights.
“Students can file lawsuits in federal courts, bringing charges of violating the law and seeking to regain their legal status. For instance, students at Michigan universities have initiated legal actions against the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that their F-1 statuses were terminated without sufficient notice or explanation”, he said.
He continued, students may request temporary restraining orders (TROs) in urgent circumstances to avoid being deported and to reinstate their status while legal proceedings are pending. Federal judges in states like Montana have granted such orders to protect students from immediate removal, he said.
According to Syed, “Many universities are actively assisting affected students by providing legal resources, collaborating with federal authorities, and providing academic accommodations.” “For example, George Mason University has engaged with federal officials to understand the rationale behind visa terminations and is exploring legal options to support its international students”.
How do campus visa cancellations impact students?
Hafsa Kanjwal, an associate professor at Lafayette College, a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, says there is a large amount of fear and uncertainty on college campuses for both students and faculty. People are having to reevaluate their travel plans because of the country’s restrictions on their entry.
“Some students and faculty don’t have a place to ‘ go back ‘ to, given the political turmoil in their respective places of origin”, she told Al Jazeera. “They are in the minority,” according to the statement from some colleges and universities, who are taking more proactive measures. It seems most campuses have not really provided reassurances to international students and faculty to address their concerns, especially around what kinds of accommodations will be made for them to address these changing developments”.
International students are afraid, according to another faculty member, a naturalized citizen at a state college, who wished to remain anonymous in order to avoid any issues that might arise from his speaking freely.
Many of them – even those who have not staked out political positions publicly – are deleting their social media profiles and are terrified that some small mistake, anything they posted or said, might get them abducted and deported, ruining their education, he said.
I can recall having a green card and playing politics. We understood that as long as we remained within the bounds of the law, we had the right to express our opinions and engage in politics”, he recalled.
He said, “I actively participated in [protests against] both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and I publicly opposed war on terror initiatives like drone strikes.” “What the Trump administration wants to do is communicate to immigrants and international students that their rights here are in fact privileges and contingent on them staying in line, and more broadly they want to shut down pathways to immigration by targeting green card holders.
They want to discipline universities and make them crack down on liberal and left-leaning content in classrooms, he added, adding that they also see universities and colleges as bastions of liberal and left-wing politics.
Which students and graduates have been affected?
30 yr old Mahmoud Khalil
• Date of arrest: March 8
• Algerian-Palestinian nationality
• University: Columbia graduate
• Holder of a green card legally in the US
• How was he arrested? Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate from Columbia University who served as the group’s lead negotiator during the campus protests last year, was taken into custody by ICE agents last month. He was taken from his university-owned New York City apartment while his US citizen wife, Noor Abdalla, who is pregnant, recorded the arrest on her phone. Under the Trump administration, this was the first of its kind to be publicly known student deportation effort.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, alleged Khalil” led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation”, but no evidence for this was provided. Abdalla claimed that the agents conducted the arrest without a warrant. Khalil was transferred to an ICE processing facility in Jena, Louisiana.
Khalil was a permanent resident with a green card at the time of his arrest. When the ICE agents were told that Khalil had a green card, they said this would be revoked.
• Charges: It is unknown whether he has been charged with a crime.
However, Rubio posted the link to a news article about Khalil’s arrest, captioning it:” We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported. “Khalil’s case has drawn a lot of attention because rights activists accuse the administration of restricting free speech and pro-Palestine activism under the pretext of fighting anti-Semitism,” according to Khalil.
The administration is trying to deport Khalil under a rarely used provision of an immigration law that gives the secretary of state the power to remove any non-citizen whose presence in the US is deemed to have” adverse foreign policy consequences”.
Khalil is being held in Jena, Louisiana’s LaSalle Detention Center.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30
• March 26 as the date of the arrest
• Nationality: Turkish
• Tufts University as a school
• Legal status in the US: Student visa
• How did she get arrested? Security camera footage shows six individuals in plainclothes taking Ozturk into custody in late March near her apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts. Some of these police officers had their faces partially covered. Ozturk had headed out alone to meet her friends for Iftar, the evening meal to break her Ramadan fast.
• Charges: It is unknown whether she has been charged with a crime.
On March 26, 2024, Ozturk co-wrote an opinion piece for her university’s student news website, the Tufts Daily, with four other students. The authors in this article criticized Sunil Kumar, the institute’s president, for rejecting resolutions that the Tufts Community Union Senate had recommended the university “recognize the genocide of the Palestinians” and “recognized the institution’s president.”
Ozturk’s lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, filed a petition in a Boston federal court, arguing that Ozturk had been unlawfully detained. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was given the result of US District Judge Indira Talwani’s request to not move Ozturk out of Massachusetts without giving 48-hour notice.
Despite this, Ozturk was moved to Louisiana within a day, according to her lawyer.
Tricia McLaughlin, a representative for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), stated in an X-post on March 26 that “DHS + ICE investigations discovered Ozturk engaging in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” “McLaughlin did not specify what these activities were.
As of April 18, Ozturk is a detainee at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center on the ICE portal.
Badar Khan Suri, 42
• March 17 as the date of arrest
• Nationality: Indian
• Georgetown University Institution
• Legal status in the US: Student visa
• How was he arrested? At his northern Virginian home in the evening, he was detained.
• Charges: It is unknown whether he has been charged with a crime.
Department of Homeland Security Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin attributed Suri’s arrest to his” spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism”. Suri is a senior advisor to Hamas, she wrote on X: “She has close ties to a known or suspected terrorist.
Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, is a US citizen, she confirmed to Al Jazeera. Saleh was the daughter of a senior Hamas adviser, according to a post on X on February 13. Ahmed Yousef, a former adviser to assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, confirmed to The New York Times that he is Suri’s father-in-law.
Suri’s deportation was halted by Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of the Eastern District of Virginia Court on March 20.
According to the ICE website, Suri is currently being held in the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.
Yunseo Chung, age 21,
• Date of arrest: March 5
• South Korean nationality
• Institution: Barnard, a Columbia-affiliated undergraduate college
Permanent resident status in the US:
• How did she get arrested? Chung was one of the many students detained by police because of their anti-Palestine demonstrations.
• Charges: It is unknown whether she has been charged with a crime.
She has sued the Trump administration in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to avoid being deported. US district judge Naomi Reice Buchwald halted her deportation.
Momodou Taal, 31
• Nationality: Both The Gambia and the United Kingdom are citizens.
• Institution: Was a doctoral candidate in Africana Studies at Cornell University
• Legal status in the US: Student visa
• Charges: It is unknown whether he has been charged with a crime.
He called on Cornell to stop buying weapons from organizations that sell weapons to Israel last year while organizing pro-Palestine demonstrations. Taal was suspended from Cornell twice last year for his participation in protest activities and encampment. Although he hasn’t been detained, he thinks the US government made an attempt to detain him.
Taal told Al Jazeera that he filed a lawsuit on March 8 alongside two other plaintiffs – a doctoral candidate and a Cornell professor who are both US citizens – after Khalil was arrested, against two Trump executive orders, including the one focused on university campuses.
Unidentified law enforcement appeared on X the morning of March 19 the day after a federal judge set a hearing for Taal’s lawsuit. Taal posted a written statement on the statement on the statement on the day. He added that later in the day, Cornell students saw additional law enforcement cars positioned at different spots near his residence, including on campus.
Taal left the United States on March 14 after his visa was voided.
Alireza Doroudi, 32
• March 25, 2025, as the date of arrest
• Nationality: Iranian
University of Alabama: Institution
• Legal status in the US: Student visa
• How was he arrested? taken into custody from his residence
• Charges: It is unknown whether he has been charged with a crime.
The Department of Homeland Security stated the student visa was revoked and he was then arrested because he” posed significant national security concerns”.
37-year-old Ranjani Srinivasan
• Nationality: Indian
• University: Columbia
• Legal status in the US: Student visa which has been revoked
• Charges: It is unknown whether she has been charged with a crime.
On March 7, unauthorized immigrants knocked on Srinivasan’s university residence hall apartment, which she had resided in since 2021. The individuals said they planned to put Srinivasan through proceedings to remove her from the US, before eventually leaving.
Srinivasan was suspended from Columbia’s student body on March 9.
By March 11, Srinivasan had flown out of New York to Canada on a visitor visa to stay with her family and friends. Srinivasan had left the US, according to her attorneys’ communication to ICE.
Leqaa Kordia, 21
• March 13, 2025, the date of arrest
• Nationality: Palestinian
• Unknown institution
• Legal status in the US: Overstayed a student visa
• Charges: According to the DHS, Kordia had overstayed her student visa because she “did not show up” in class in 2022. In April 2024 she was arrested for her involvement in protests for Gaza at Columbia University.
Xiaotian Liu, 26
• Nationality: Chinese
• University: Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
• Legal status in the US: Student visa which was revoked
• Charges: There are no known charges.
On April 3, Liu’s college ran a routine check on his legal status and discovered that his student visa had been revoked without notice.
The university informed him that he could not continue earning a doctorate in computer science the following day.
Liu says he has not been charged with any crime and did not take part in any protests.
He brought a lawsuit against the US government and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, alleging that his visa had been “rejected without any notice and justification.”
On April 9, a federal judge in New Hampshire halted the decision temporarily, saying she would block the Trump administration’s apparent revocation of Liu’s status.
30 year old Mohsen Mahdawi
• Date of arrest: April 14, 2025
• Nationality: Palestinian
• University: Columbia
• Holder of a green card legally in the US
• How was he detained: According to his attorneys, Mohsen Mahdawi was detained on Monday while attending an immigration office interview regarding his citizenship application.
• Charges: It is unknown whether he has been charged with a crime.
Shortly after Mahdawi’s detention, District Judge William Sessions ordered that he must not be taken from the state of Vermont or the US. Along with Khalil, Mahdawi co-founded a Palestinian student organization at Columbia University.
Source: Aljazeera
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