Some Foreign Students Fear Speaking out as Visa Cancellations Rise

The Washington Post

12:58 JST, April 13, 2025

Some have scrubbed or deactivated their social media feeds. Others have stopped leaving campus or attending demonstrations. And many fear speaking up in class, worried if they say the wrong thing, their ability to study in this country could suddenly be snatched away.

Since mid-March, the number of international students and scholars who have had their visas revoked, their federal record terminated – or both – has climbed to nearly 1,000, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators. The American Immigration Lawyers Association estimates the number of terminated records for international students could be higher, at least 4,700 since Trump’s inauguration. As the numbers climb, noncitizen scholars in blue states and red states, at elite private schools and publics, have changed their daily routines, worried they could be next.

Bernardo De Oliveira Geissmann, an international student studying mechanical engineering at Arizona State University, said he and others in the school’s Brazilian Student Association have been hearing from students whose visas have been revoked. “It honestly scares me,” he said.

It has made him hesitant to share certain political opinions, he said. “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. I believe that the entire community feels that way.”

The Trump administration has said it’s targeting international students and faculty for detention and deportation as part of its initiative to fight antisemitism in the wake of protests that roiled college campuses last spring. In January, Trump signed an executive order he said would combat antisemitism on campus. And he threatened to cancel visas and deport “Hamas sympathizers.”

On Friday, a Louisiana immigration judge ruled that Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil – the first high-profile case in the crackdown – is eligible for deportation, after the Trump administration accused him of being a threat to U.S. foreign policy.

In recent years, free-speech advocates and some conservatives have said that students and faculty are afraid to share their views because they don’t want to get canceled. Now some students said they’re self-censoring because they don’t want to get deported.

“The feeling is that everyone could potentially be targeted, creating an extraordinary chilling impact across the U.S.,” said Veena Dubal, the general counsel at the American Association of University Professors and a law professor at the University of California at Irvine.

Dubal said the mass visa revocations, after “shock-and-awe” detentions, have intimidated some people to self-deport.

College officials are frantically trying to figure out how many of their students are affected and the specific reasons behind each of the decisions.

In many cases, students may not know their status has changed. The government has not notified colleges of all of the visa revocations. Some colleges found out about the changes after proactively checking the federal database, school officials told The Post.

And the number of affected students has been rising quickly at many schools. In a matter of days, leaders at the University of Michigan told the campus community this week that their number of visa cancellations had increased from 11 to at least 22. At the University of California at Berkeley, the number has quickly risen to at least 23.

It is unclear if the increase is partly due to a new tactic at DHS. The department announced this week that officials are scouring social media to identify foreign extremists, and wrote on X: “There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here. Anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-Semitic violence and terrorism – think again. You are not welcome here.”

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, referred questions on the exact number of revocations to the State Department. A State Department spokesperson said they do not generally share those statistics, since the number is dynamic. The spokesperson added that the State Department reviews arrests, criminal convictions and “engaging in conduct that is inconsistent with the visa classification,” among other factors when deciding about revocation.

Confusion is fueling fears.

Some students have been arrested and threatened with deportation for their role in pro-Palestinian protests. Others have been detained for a past run-in with law enforcement, such as a minor traffic violation or even after being a victim of a crime themselves. Sometimes, no reason is given for the visa revocation.

“Additional information became available after your visa was issued,” read one student’s State Department notification reviewed by The Post. No further explanation was provided.

International students’ records are maintained in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database. In addition to the visa revocations by the State Department, ICE is also terminating records in SEVIS.

“The net that is being cast by the government is extremely broad,” said Jeff Joseph, the incoming president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He compared the SEVIS terminations to receiving a recall on one’s car. While one could still drive the car, the recall indicates there might be something wrong with the car down the line. Similarly, when one receives a notification from SEVIS that there’s an issue with their student status, it doesn’t mean they are no longer a student and must immediately leave the country. But, they might have to leave in the future.

He added that the record termination is supposed to only happen for three reasons: if a person has been granted a waiver of inadmissibility; if there’s been an official notice by the State Department published in the Federal Register that a person is part of a dangerous group or political party; or, if Congress has passed a law giving a particular person a green card, thereby making their SEVIS status void.

None of those reasons has been mentioned in these cases, Joseph said.

“To that extent, the SEVIS termination is clearly illegal,” he said. “Students should be able to continue studies unless SEVIS is properly terminated.”

Jay Greene, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said there has been a large increase in the number of international students studying here in recent years; it’s now over 1 million a year. At those levels, it’s not possible for the State Department to carefully vet each applicant, he said. It might not be possible to identify some extremists before entry, he said, “but they can be detected after they enter. While I think it’s in the U.S. interest to welcome foreign students who are productive and scholarly, those who are coming to engage in agitation are not welcome.”

One junior at Georgetown University, where six scholars have had their visas revoked, said she deactivated her account on X because she worried that could affect her ability to get citizenship.

“With the way I see everyone’s social media being scrutinized, it’s not worth the risk,” she said, adding that she’s in student government but has recently been advised to stay out of certain conversations for her own safety. The Canadian and Iranian dual national had her U.S. citizenship interview Friday, and asked not to be identified for fear of jeopardizing her chances.

Some students said they refuse to be silenced.

Maria Alejandra Romero Cuesta, a Colombian junior at George Mason University in Virginia, said she’s afraid to walk through the streets or go out much in public – unless it’s at a rally. As the student-body president, she said she feels a responsibility to use her position to advocate for other international students and oppose Trump’s policies.

Still, she made a plan for her friends to activate if she gets detained. If she is by herself, she’ll call the number she’s memorized for her school’s international students office. If it happens at a protest, one friend would film the interaction, one would ask the officers where she was being taken and another would seek legal help.

At a recent rally organized by D.C.-area student leaders outside the Education Department, she urged the Trump administration to keep its “hands off” her school and her friends.

She said she came to the U.S. because of its top-tier universities and the diversity of opinions at those institutions. “I need to say something for my community,” she said. “That also 100 percent compromises my safety.”

Already, at least 15 students at George Mason have had their visas revoked, a spokesperson said.

For Bernardo De Oliveira Geissmann, the Arizona State student, the most shocking news during the government crackdown was the arrest of the graduate student from Tufts University; a video that circulated of masked immigration officers arresting her on the sidewalk as she exited her home frightened him.

“I have a friend starting his PhD at Tufts next semester, and I feel afraid for him,” he said. “I don’t want anything to happen to him.”

He said he would keep working, studying, and researching, not knowing what tomorrow might bring. “The dream of studying in the U.S. is getting harder, but we are here for it,” he said, “and we will face whatever it takes for a better education and a better life.”