Key points
- Foreign students deleting social media to avoid deportion
- Around 1,000 visas of foreign students have been revoked
- Rubio also admits revoking visas
WASHINGTON: International students have said that they are deleting social media, keeping their views to themselves, and staying on campus to avoid being deported, The Washington Post reported.
The newspaper reported that some have scrubbed or deactivated their social media feeds. Some students have stopped leaving campus or attending demonstrations. And many students fear speaking up in class, worried if they say the wrong thing, their ability to study in this country could suddenly be snatched away, according to The Washington Post.
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, the newspaper cited Association of International Educators as saying.
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, according to the US media reports.
Trump administration
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.
According to the media reports, the Trump administration has revoked visas of hundreds of international students and detained roughly a dozen others on college campuses across the US, often without any warning or recourse for appeals.
Student protests that spread across the US in support of Palestine and peace, and against the Israeli war on Gaza, were dealt with a heavy hand by the US authorities. These protests, because of the crackdown, have now become a thing of the past.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed last month that at least 300 visas have been revoked, adding that the department was targeting those who were involved in activities that “run counter” to US national interests.
