{"id":151799,"date":"2025-06-01T14:15:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T14:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/what-to-know-as-trump-administration-targets-international-students-with-visa-restrictions-arrests-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T14:15:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T14:15:54","slug":"what-to-know-as-trump-administration-targets-international-students-with-visa-restrictions-arrests-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/what-to-know-as-trump-administration-targets-international-students-with-visa-restrictions-arrests-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know as Trump administration targets international students with visa restrictions, arrests – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Lawsuits, next-day countersuits, backtracking and mass confusion. International students find themselves at the center of a dizzying legal landscape as the Trump administration continues to crack down on immigration.
Here\u2019s what to know as the Trump administration keeps attempting to put up legal barriers to international students\u2019 ability to study in the U.S.
Just Wednesday, a judge granted Harvard an extension on an injunction that blocked the administration\u2019s attempt last week to stop the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign-born students.
An estimated 4,700 or more foreign-born students have been impacted since the Trump administration began revoking visas and terminating legal statuses in March. A few have also been detained in high-profile cases.
In just the past two weeks, students across the country were granted a nationwide injunction against the administration. Some scholars have been released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well. Meanwhile the State Department announced that it is \u201caggressively\u201d targeting an additional group of Chinese scholars out of national security concerns.
But in spite of its legal losses, the federal government has doubled down on its efforts to target international students. On Tuesday, the Trump administration stopped scheduling new student visa interviews for those looking to study in the U.S., according to an internal cable seen by NBC News. Meanwhile, the State Department is preparing to expand its social media screening of applicants, the cable said.
The next day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the government would be looking to revoke the visas of Chinese students \u201cwith connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.\u201d
It\u2019s still unclear what \u201ccritical fields\u201d the administration will be looking into and what types of connections to the CCP are under scrutiny. The State Department referred NBC News to comments by spokesperson Tammy Bruce during a news briefing Thursday in which Bruce said the department does not discuss the details of its visa process due to privacy concerns.
\u201cWe use every tool that we have to vet and to make sure we know who\u2019s coming in,\u201d Bruce said. \u201cIn this particular case, the United States is putting America first by beginning to revoke visas of Chinese students as warranted.\u201d
For months, there was mass confusion among schools and international students about the criteria the government used to abruptly terminate visas and statuses, with little to no notice to students. But in late April, the Department of Homeland Security revealed at a hearing that it used the National Crime Information Center, an FBI-run computerized index that includes criminal history information.
The agency said fewer than two dozen employees ran the names of 1.3 million foreign-born students through the index, populating 6,400 \u201chits.\u201d And from there, many students experienced terminations of their records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which maintains information about nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors.
The method was sharply criticized by legal and policy experts, who pointed out that the database relies on cities, counties, states and other sources to voluntarily report their data. This means that it may not have the final dispositions of cases, potentially leading to errors in identifying students.
At another hearing in April, Elizabeth D. Kurlan, <\/a>an attorney for the Justice Department, said that going forward, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not be terminating statuses based solely on findings in the crime information center. She also told the court that ICE would be restoring the legal status of international students who had their records terminated until the agency developed a new framework for revocations.
Shortly afterward, an internal memo to all Student and Exchange Visitor Program personnel, which is under ICE jurisdiction, showed an expanded list of criteria for the agency to terminate foreign-born students\u2019 legal status in the U.S., including a \u201cU.S. Department of State Visa Revocation (Effective Immediately).\u201d Though students would typically have the right to due process and defend themselves before their status is terminated, visa revocation itself is now grounds for the termination of status, according to the memo.
The administration has also taken aim at students who have been active in pro-Palestine protests, including Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk, who were both detained in March. \u00d6zt\u00fcrk has since been released from ICE custody.
\u201cEvery time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,\u201d Rubio said at a news conference<\/a> in March.
Students across the U.S. from Georgia to South Dakota have been winning their lawsuits against the Trump administration, with judges siding with plaintiffs and allowing them to stay in the U.S.
Last week, a judge issued an injunction blocking the Trump administration from terminating the legal statuses of international students at universities across the U.S. It\u2019s the first to provide relief to students nationwide.
The day after the Trump administration terminated<\/a> Harvard\u2019s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification \u2014 a move that would force the university\u2019s foreign students, roughly a fourth of its student body, to either transfer or lose their legal status \u2014 the Ivy League school sued the administration. And hours later, a judge issued an injunction.
In addition to \u00d6zt\u00fcrk, others who were detained are no longer in ICE custody, including Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri and Mohsen Mahdawi, a U.S. permanent resident who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The judge in Khan Suri\u2019s case ruled that his detention was in violation of the First Amendment, which protects the right to free speech, and the Fifth Amendment, which protects the right to due process.
Though the recent nationwide injunction provides some relief, students can still be vulnerable to visa revocation. Legal experts say the temporary restraining order blocks the government from arresting or detaining students, or terminating their legal statuses. But it\u2019s possible that visas can still be revoked. And many expect the Trump administration to hit back.
\u201cThis is a federal district court decision. It is not a final decision, and it seems likely that the executive branch will appeal this decision,\u201d Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants\u2019 Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.
Mukherjee also added that the Chinese international students referred to in Rubio\u2019s new statement are likely not protected by the injunction either.
\u201cWhat they\u2019re likely to claim in court in defense of this policy is that the secretary of state and the executive branch deserves deference with regard to quote, unquote, foreign affairs,\u201d Mukherjee said.
However, with backlash already brewing, Mukherjee said she expects that the policy will be challenged legally, with immigration attorneys and activists arguing that it is unconstitutional.
Legal experts said that with many decisions surrounding international students\u2019 fate far from decided, foreign-born scholars should first and foremost remain in the country. She also said it\u2019s important to seek legal counsel in the event that students are also eligible for other forms of relief, including asylum or other humanitarian visas.<\/a>
Razeen Zaman, director of immigrant rights at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said it\u2019s particularly important for American citizens to speak out against the immigration policies on behalf of foreign-born students, as many of these students may not be able to push back themselves.
\u201cYou have to have a certain amount of resources to be able to do that. You have to have a certain amount of connections. There\u2019s even some people who are too afraid to seek counsel,\u201d Zaman said. \u201cU.S. citizens have the most protections. \u2026 And the reality is, even if you\u2019re stopped at the border, they do have to still let you in as a U.S. citizen.\u201d
And given how the Supreme Court<\/a> on Friday allowed the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants from four Latin American countries, Zaman said, it\u2019s likely that even more groups will be targeted without fierce advocacy and protest.
\u201cThis is about the First Amendment today. It\u2019s Chinese people, the CCP, whoever they decide is tied to the Chinese government,\u201d Zaman said.
Kimmy Yam is a reporter for NBC Asian America.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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