In recent weeks, multiple students at various Michigan universities have discovered their student visas have been revoked. The federal government has not explicitly given reasons for doing so.
A White House fact sheet published in late January did note that the Justice Department would take immediate action to “protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”
Axios has since reported that AI systems are now being used to screen social media posts by international students.
Huwaida Arraf, an attorney who has done legal work representing some of the students who protested Israel’s war in Hamas on the University of Michigan’s campus, said the Trump administration has initiated a “sweeping policy of visa and green card revocations, specifically targeting students and international students.”
An unspecified number of international students at Michigan State University and Central Michigan University have had their visas revoked. Two students at Grand Valley State University, four at Wayne State, one at Eastern Michigan University, and 12 enrolled students and 10 graduates of the University of Michigan have also been affected.
“These are the kinds of government actions that you'd expect from an authoritarian regime, not from the United States and certainly not from any democracy,” Arraf said.
Arraf highlighted the experience of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist, green card holder, and graduate student at Columbia University who was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in March.
Arraf argued that these revocations violate First Amendment rights, which are afforded to non-citizens. She said the revocations also violate the Equal Protection clause, because they disproportionately target individuals advocating for Palestinian rights, she said.
“During the McCarthy Era, you had the U.S. government using immigration law to specifically target activists, union organizers, and others critical of U.S. foreign policy," Arraf said. “And we had the FBI surveil and try to deport civil rights leaders. And this is the kind of attacks that we're seeing on activists, on speech, on our civil liberties.”
The groundwork for the national wave of student visa revocations, Arraf said, was laid by the Biden administration.
“We saw, under the last administration, students being harassed, doxxed, blacklisted for supporting Palestinian rights, and the administration didn't defend them, didn't speak up for them, and that silence gave a green light to escalate repression,” Arraf said.
Under the Biden Administration, the U.S. Department of Education also threatened to withdraw federal funding if universities and colleges couldn’t curb antisemitism or Islamophobia. The administration also faced criticism from Palestinian rights activists.
Arraf said students who have had their visa revoked shouldn’t have to worry about being able to afford legal representation.
“A lot of attorneys are stepping up and volunteering, doing pro bono work, and communities are fundraising to support the legal fight against this policy,” she said.
Arraf advised affected students to check their status with their college or university. If an individual is still listed as a student with their school, they are still legally present in the U.S., she said.
“Of course, that doesn't mean that ICE agents might not come and pick [students] up and try to deport them, but only to say that being notified that your visa has been revoked does not necessarily mean that you are illegal in the country,” Arraf said.
She expressed that colleges and universities have a responsibility to defend their students as the Trump Administration continues to take action against those born outside of the country.
“What we need to see is these institutions standing up for their students, providing what security and resources and protection they can to these students and fighting this attempt by the administration to curtail our civil rights, again, because it's based on a protected First Amendment right to speech,” Arraf said.
Hear our full conversation with Huwaida Arraf on the Stateside podcast.
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