Sector leaders are rallying against the immigration enforcement actions of the US government – including arresting and detaining a growing number of international students and revoking student visas – calling on the Trump administration to respect constitutional rights.
The Presidents’ Alliance, a network of over 570 institutional leaders, said it was “highly alarmed” by the “deeply disturbing” actions targeting non-citizen students, faculty and staff.
“[The Alliance] condemns the detention of international students and urgently calls on the administration to respect their constitutional rights, including the First Amendment’s protection of speech and the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process,” it said in a statement.
“The government’s actions and rhetoric create an atmosphere of fear, threaten academic freedom, chill free expression, and jeopardise the well-being of non-citizen members of our campus communities,” the group continued.
The statement followed secretary of state Marco Rubio saying that over 300 international student visas had been revoked by the US government as part of the administration’s clampdown on pro-Palestinian protesters.
“We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio told reporters on a visit to Guyana on March 27.
“We give you a visa to come and study to get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses,” said Rubio, referring to the pro-Palestine protests that swept US college campuses last year.
Recent weeks have seen a rising number of apprehensions and arrests of international students seemingly in response to their involvement in pro-Palestinian advocacy, with Rubio defending the detention last week of Tufts University doctoral Fulbright scholar, Rümeysa Öztürk.
On March 28, the administration appeared to push ahead with even stricter screening processes for international student visas, ordering consulates to vet applicants for those supporting “terrorist activities”.
The enhanced vetting order was delivered by Rubio in a State Department cable seen by The Guardian and The Handbasket, with the subject: “Action Request: Enhanced Screening and Social Media Vetting for Visa Applicants.”
The guidelines enforce stricter social media vetting for F, M and J visa applicants deemed to support terrorism and extends to students in the US as of October 7 whose visas are up for renewal, noting the day of Hamas’ attacks that prompted Israel’s full-scale invasion of Gaza.
The cable includes instructions of how to take screenshots of visa applicants’ social media profiles if they are deemed to be “advocating for, sympathising with, or persuading other to endorse or espouse terrorist activities”.
As per the memo, “evidence that an applicant advocates for terrorist activity or otherwise demonstrates a degree of public approval or public advocacy for terrorist activity or a terrorist organisation” can be grounds for a visa rejection.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The broad vetting powers given to consulates stem from two of Trump’s early executive orders focussing on combatting antisemitism and protecting the US from foreign terrorists.
However, protestors, including some Jewish groups, have said that the administration inaccurately conflates pro-Palestinian advocacy with antisemitism and support for Hamas.
The Trump administration is going after international scholars and students who speak their minds about Palestine, but make no mistake: they won’t stop there
Todd Wolfson, AAUP
Meanwhile, colleges and associations are increasingly speaking out against what they see as the government’s arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement practices against international students and staff.
On March 25, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), along with chapters at Harvard, Rutgers, and NYU’s Middle East Studies Association, filed a lawsuit seeking to block the large-scale arrests, detentions and deportations of non-citizen students and staff “who participate in pro-Palestinian protests and other protected First Amendment activities”.
Their grievances echo those of the Alliance, which said that recent enforcement operations appear to “lack clear cause” and “raise serious concerns about fairness, due process, freedom from arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement, and other constitutional protections”.
AAUP’s legal action is based on the grounds that the administration’s “ideological-deportation policy” violates the first amendment right of freedom of speech, which the group said was creating “a climate of fear and repression”.
“The Trump administration is going after international scholars and students who speak their minds about Palestine, but make no mistake: they won’t stop there,” said AAUP president Todd Wolfson.
“They’ll come next for those who teach the history of slavery or who provide gender-affirming health care or who research climate change or who counsel students about their reproductive choices,” he added.
Faculty from Tufts University Fletcher Law School have also spoken out, urging the university to commence legal action against the government in response to Öztürk’s detainment by plain clothed immigration officers – an incident captured by surveillance cameras that has since gone viral.
According to her lawyers, Öztürk has not been charged with a crime, and they believe her arrest was in retaliation for an opinion piece she co-authored compelling Tufts university to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest from companies tied to Israel.
On Friday, a US district judge ruled that Öztürk could not be deported without a court order and that the government must respond to her latest claims by Tuesday April 1.
Some international students are deciding to leave the US rather than face arrest or deportation, including Momodou Taal, a Cornell University doctoral candidate who sued the Trump administration in mid-March over student deportations.
According to his lawyers, Taal was previously told by officials that his visa was being revoked and was asked to turn himself in. On March 31, the UK-Gambian citizen said he was leaving the US due to fears of personal safety, his lawyers told Reuters.
On top of the uncertainty faced by individuals, NAFSA has emphasised the broader impact of government enforcement on the attractiveness of the US, warning that “students have many options when it comes to study destination”.
“These actions… will likely result in prospective students choosing to study elsewhere and current students accelerating the completion of their degrees so they can return home sooner,” said NAFSA.
“Losing international students’ contributions will negatively impact US engagement with the world, as well as the country’s economic strength, security, and global competitiveness. These outcomes run counter to the administration’s stated goal of making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
