Foreign students are quietly being pushed out of the US without reason or process

A crackdown on foreign students is alarming colleges, who say the Trump administration is using new tactics and vague justifications to push some students out of the country. Students are being stripped of their entry visas and ordered by the Department of Homeland Security to leave the US immediately—a departure from past practice, which often allowed them to stay and complete their studies. In many cases, universities are finding out only after discovering that the students’ SEVIS records—the federal system that tracks international students—have been quietly terminated without notice or explanation.

University officials say the sudden move to cancel student status is taking place without notice or explanation, raising fears that the shift could discourage international students from choosing to study in the US. Colleges across the country are now grappling with cases of visa revocations and SEVIS terminations, many of which they discovered only after running routine checks in federal databases.

“Students get an email from their universities saying that your SEVIS has been revoked. We just found out. So even the universities are surprised and no one seems to know the reasons,” Rajiv Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com, told ET.

According to reports, five international students had their visas revoked for unclear reasons at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The school discovered the revocations while checking records following the detention of a Turkish student at the University of Minnesota. The State Department said that case was linked to a drunk driving conviction.

The federal crackdown has expanded rapidly. Students at Arizona State, Cornell, North Carolina State, the University of Oregon, the University of Texas, and the University of Colorado have had their legal student status revoked, with some being detained before their universities were notified.

Khanna said the students affected have faced a range of issues. “The students I have spoken with have given me different answers. Some of them had minor brushes with the law, like minor traffic violations… which are not deportable offenses,” he said. “We also found some instances where there was no finding of guilt.”

Traditionally, students with revoked visas were allowed to remain in the US and continue studying, provided they didn’t travel internationally. That process has now changed. “They are just cancelling SEVIS without notice or process,” Khanna said. “And the students have two options – leave right away or be placed in deportation. Or they need to find a litigator to get a restraining order against deportation.”

At the University of Texas at Austin, a check of the federal student database revealed that two international graduates—one from India and one from Lebanon—had their status terminated due to criminal records checks. Both were on Optional Practical Training and were employed full time at the time of termination.

In some cases, student status has been cancelled under a provision that allows authorities to revoke visas if a person's presence in the US is deemed to have "serious adverse foreign policy consequences." The Trump administration invoked that rule earlier this year in response to campus protests.

Khanna noted that many students being removed have not been linked to political activism. “The problem is not that SEVIS are being cancelled. But it’s now being cancelled without any reason or process. And there is no room for response against the allegations,” he said.

With little information from the government, colleges are now scrambling to understand the new approach, while international students are left seeking legal relief or planning their departure under pressure.