Some international students are trying to take steps to avoid deportation, including deleting social media, keeping their views to themselves and avoiding demonstrations, reports the Washington Post.
More than 1,000 students, faculty and researchers have had their visas revoked this year, or their federal record terminated, often without any warning or recourse for appeals.
“With the way I see everyone’s social media being scrutinized, it’s not worth the risk,” said one junior at Georgetown University, where six scholars’ visas have been revoked.
According to Higher Ed, over 80 universities have reported revoked visas. And as of April 12, over 170 colleges and universities have identified 950-plus international students and recent graduates who have had their legal status changed by the State Department.
“I am not an extremist in any sense, but I don’t know what is considered freedom of speech and what is considered a threat to the government,” Bernardo De Oliveira Geissmann, a Brazilian international student studying mechanical engineering at Arizona State University, told the Post.
“I believe that the entire community feels that way.”
Veena Dubal, the general counsel at the American Association of University Professors and a law professor at the University of California at Irvine, told the Post that the feeling “is that everyone could potentially be targeted, creating an extraordinary chilling impact across the U.S.”
“The net that is being cast by the government is extremely broad,” said Jeff Joseph, the incoming president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 27 said the State Department had revoked 300 or more student visas, claiming the individuals were “lunatics.”
"Here's why: I've said it everywhere, and I'll say it again," Rubio said. "If you apply for a student visa to come to the United States and you say you're coming not just to study, but to participate in movements that vandalize universities, harass students, take over buildings, and cause chaos, we're not giving you that visa."
An immigration judge on Friday ruled that the Trump administration could deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil after lawyers argued the legality of deporting the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.