"The reason for the cancellation is that your name has appeared in criminal records and/or your visa has been canceled." That is the explanation given by the United States to Angela (a fictitious name used for safety reasons), who returned to Spain this Wednesday after her resident status was revoked. Angela received an email days ago informing her that her OPT visa (Optional Practical Training, which allows students to do internships in the US for up to a year after completing their studies) had been canceled even though it was valid until August. With this, her student status was no longer valid, and her presence in the country became illegal.
"Your life takes a 180-degree turn in a moment. I left work on Friday and I will never go back," she explains. Until a few days ago, Angela was working at a startup. She arrived in the US last academic year to pursue a postgraduate program in an international partnership between the European University and the University of California. She was allowed to do an internship at a company, where she was hired for this year. Everything was going well until she received the email. The young woman insists that the usual procedure for canceling these types of permits is "a major reason," such as serious crimes of violence. "And even then, even if they cancel your visa, your student status remains valid, and you can stay in the US legally," she explains. This was not her case, nor the case of hundreds of students in the US in recent weeks: "What they are doing now is canceling the visa and your status at the same time. And then you become illegal."
Detentions and visa revocations have intensified in the US in recent weeks, and media outlets like CNN and the Washington Post are already reporting "massive" cancellations of visas for international students. "This has been happening massively for the past week or two, there are a lot of affected students," Angela confirms. "Immigration lawyers don't even know how to deal with what's happening because this is an unprecedented situation... It's impossible to get an appointment with any of them. That's been my week."
"More than 500 foreign students have had their US visas revoked in recent weeks as the Donald Trump Administration intensifies its crackdown on universities," reported the Financial Times a few days ago. The media outlet cited NAFSA's statements, a student network that had already identified 500 visa revocations from American higher education institutions: "This is uncharted territory on many levels." Meanwhile, on the Inside Higher Ed website, an interactive map collects and updates the situation daily. More than 170 institutions have already identified over 1,000 international students and recent graduates "whose legal status has been changed by the Department of State."
Faced with uncertainty, those affected find the authorities' silence deafening: "I haven't even received official information from the government telling me that my visa has been canceled," Angela protests. However, this is not mandatory; foreigners may discover that they are barred from entering the country at the airport.
Angela returns home, although she was allowed to reside in the US until August. Her urgency to leave the country is due, in addition to the fear of being detained, to wanting to avoid accumulating illegal days that could prevent her return in the future. However, not all students are following her path: many are filing lawsuits to try to maintain their student status to continue residing, given the absence of reasons for the visa cancellation. And there is another option: group lawsuits, slower but starting to take shape in online forums.
UNIVERSITIES ON ALERT
"MIT has told all international students to always carry all documentation and to avoid traveling if possible," a 23-year-old Spanish student residing in Boston tells this outlet, adding that "Harvard and MIT are monitoring visa statuses daily because they are being revoked without notice many times." In an email sent in March, the vice president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology informed them that the federal government had recently revoked the visas of three students and terminated their immigration status in the federal system (SEVIS), apparently due to criminal records, traffic violations, and similar offenses: "As far as we know, these cases do not seem to be related to campus activism."
"I didn't receive any indication," explains Angela, who no longer attends classes at her university. "My friends at universities in Boston did receive emails during Christmas, recommending people from certain countries not to return home during the holidays and not to leave the country because no one guaranteed they could re-enter. Now, with Spring break, they have warned again."
Other sources point out to this outlet that the processes began before Trump's arrival in October. Initially, detentions seemed to have a bias of origin (Latin American countries, among others). Also political, Angela points out: many students (including nationals) were detained after participating in protests. "Now it's completely arbitrary," she explains, "I haven't posted anything on social media; I haven't taken a stance in any way; I haven't committed minor offenses, not even a traffic ticket...".
"The initial case was that of Mahmoud Khalil," recalls Lucia (29), another fictitious name for a young Spanish woman pursuing her doctorate at a university in Nebraska. Lucia refers to the leader of the protests at Columbia University against the conflict in Gaza. Khalil, who had the Green Card (another more solid residency permit than student visas), was arrested, and as reported by the AP, "the arrest was directly related to Khalil's role in the protests, alleging that he was leading activities aligned with Hamas." After Khalil, another highly publicized detention case among students was that of another foreign student, Rumeysa Ozturk, who had publicly protested against the genocide in Gaza. "All the subsequent detentions followed the same line," says Lucia, pointing out that "this alerted us that they were starting to go after international students."
The story (and hysteria) continues, on an increasingly larger scale. Lucia has not been expelled like Angela, but fears it could happen at any moment. "They don't notify universities or students. Suddenly you receive an email saying your visa has been canceled, some even with a link to a form that says self-deportation for you to deport yourself," she recounts. "The situation has become complicated because one thing is having your visa revoked while you're here, which affects you when you return to the country. And another is when they rescind your I-20 form and dissolve the SEVIS number. If you're here with an expired visa but still have a contract with the university and are a student, you're protected. The problem arises when they take away the SEVIS."
The letters Lucia refers to (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) are a mandatory identification number for students wishing to reside in the US, and along with another form, the I-20, they certify participation in a university program. The I-20 procedures lead to a student visa. When crossing customs, these documents must be shown along with the passport and visa. It is possible to reside in the US only with the SEVIS number, as long as you do not cross the border. If it is removed, the student must leave the country.
Hundreds of students echo this situation on forums like Reddit: "They canceled my SEVIS this morning. Can I take 2 or 3 days to pack? Everyone is telling me to leave now, as if I had wings or something," an anonymous user recounted a few days ago. Another previous message, around the same time, describes a similar situation: "Hey, people, I'm writing on behalf of my friend whose SEVIS was just canceled, and we're trying to figure out what to do. He received the cancellation email yesterday [...] for 'Individual identified in criminal background check and/or with revoked VISA'." "My girlfriend's SEVIS was canceled yesterday, without any reason given. She has no criminal record, has not participated in any protests, or posted anything questionable on social media. She is in the first year of a master's program and has a good academic record," a user shares.
VISA PROCESSING DIFFICULTIES
In American universities, there are offices for international staff that help manage documentation when they have to leave the country, such as the I-20. "Every 6 months if you're going to leave, you have to sign that paper. Normally the process was very simple, you went to the office, they checked your record, signed it, and you came back to pick it up. A week ago, they informed us that now they would require a prior appointment." That's when the warnings started for Lucia: "Unofficially, professors have started telling us, especially those with a Green Card, not to leave the country; the problem is at customs," Lucia adds, who has heard that they are already checking mobile phones (no one knows what they are looking for). The impossibility of leaving the country, even for work reasons, is hard to digest; she has already informed her family that she will not return to Spain in the next two years.
Imagua (35 years old) also lives in uncertainty. Another fictitious name for a Canarian teacher who is in the process of changing her visa, as she has just completed her doctorate. With her OPT about to expire in August, she now needs the H1B, a work visa. Her process ("privileged, because I work at a private university") is being handled by the center's lawyers, who charge almost $3,000 for their services (the H1B alone costs $960). "Normally, this process took about three months. I applied in January. Last week they told me that it is likely that I won't even receive it by August, because the new Administration is putting up many obstacles, has fired many people, and everything is much slower." Imagua is considering the last-minute option of paying for the premium process ($3,000 additional), faster "and it makes it quite clear that in this Administration, if you have money, fine, and if not, things won't reach you on time."
Another Spanish teacher working for a public institution in Washington tells this medium that the explanation received for the delay and 'non-financing' (previously funded) of her H1B application is due to lack of public funds, due to 'over-hiring' following Covid. She has already accepted that she will have to return to Spain this year.
"WITCH HUNT"
Ángela, Lucía, and Imagua agree on one thing: the tension that arises from not making any slip that reveals an ideological stance. A climate of insecurity based on constantly checking the content stored on the phone, in Ángela's case, or being cautious when addressing sensitive topics (such as racial diversity) in Imagua's classes. Or in Lucía's case, avoiding participating or being seen in public demonstrations, like the recent ones against the Trump Administration, and feeling insecure about wearing a kufiya (Palestinian scarf) tied to her backpack.
"There is a list called Canary Mission, where they identify people working in universities and supposedly anti-Semitic students, although right now this means supporting Palestine. And with the same breath they defend this, they defend freedom of speech. There is a strong atmosphere of hysteria and paranoia," Lucía explains.
- Would you say this started with Trump, or was it already happening before?
- It started to 'heat up' with Trump. It is true that there was a very strong silence with Biden; we knew his stance towards Palestine. But the political persecution was with Trump.