During his second term, Donald Trump and his administration have begun to implement several isolationist policies. International students who attend community colleges in the Bay Area are being affected as six students from De Anza College, three from Foothill College and one student from the San Mateo Community College District have had their legal status removed.
Usually when a country draws back from foreign affairs, it is to focus on improving domestic concerns. In April, the Trump administration enacted tariffs on foreign countries with the goal of protecting domestic industries. However, it resulted in hurting the average American — specifically their wallet. The aggression and lack of calculation triggered the biggest stock market crash since the COVID-19 pandemic and angered foreign allies.
Now the Trump administration has valiantly returned its attention to the supposed threat of international students to American security. Their crimes? Speeding. Expressing their opinions. Protesting — a constitutionally protected act.
The Trump administration is following the same pattern of creating more problems than solving them, instead of doing their duty to protect the rights of all residents and the future of the country.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been terminating international students’ visas throughout the nation. This puts their legal status in a state of limbo, sowing confusion and fear of deportation. According to Inside Higher Ed, over 1,500 students and recent graduates at 280 colleges and universities have been impacted.
The aggressive anti immigrant policies are infringing on First Amendment rights to free speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press, and are already affecting scientific breakthroughs.
Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova — an essential analyst for cutting edge research in cancer detection — has been detained by ICE for months, halting progress in historic scientific research. This has sent the message to other scientists around the world to reconsider working in the US.
Many international students have been detained or deported for protesting the Israel-Hamas conflict — a conflict that experts say meets the criteria for a genocide. A conflict that the United States has funded by sending 17.9 billion dollars to Israel since the Oct. 7 attacks.
The right to protest is protected by the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court has stated that anyone who enters the United States, regardless of their legal status, is entitled to the same constitutional protections as a U.S. citizen.
One of the more notable cases is the detention of Rumeysa Öztürk, a Turkish student whose visa was cancelled in March by the DHS. Four days later, she was arrested by masked ICE officials in the street. Video surveillance of her arrest went viral with many people online calling it a kidnapping or an abduction.
These arrests are a result of the DHS abusing the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a database of international students’ legal statuses. DHS officials reported that if a foreign student had a record in the National Crime Information Center upon searching, no matter how minor, their record was erased. Then, without a record, the DHS and ICE consider themselves justified in revoking the students’ visas.
This has resulted in a flurry of immigration lawsuits. Many judges have ruled that there was no due process in the revocation of student records. The lawsuits led to the return of students’ SEVIS records. However, the students who already had their visas revoked wouldn’t get them back.
A government lawyer explained that the returning of SEVIS records was due to new guidelines for international students still being drafted. These new guidelines state that getting a student visa revoked is now grounds for deportation regardless of whether or not the student has finished their degree. Before, a student who lost their visa would be able to stay in the U.S. until they completed their education.
“This just gave them (ICE) carte blanche to have the State Department revoke a visa and then deport those students, even if they’ve done nothing wrong,” Brad Banias, an immigration attorney representing a student who lost his status over a traffic offense, told AP News.
We will likely see many more abuses of power like Öztürk’s case now that the precedent has been set to erroneously erase SEVIS records. Combined with the new visa cancellation guidelines, detention and deportation is now easier than ever.
International students benefit the U.S. fiscally, and global collaboration is essential for academia. The ability to carelessly terminate thousands of students’ records without going through any checks and balances shows the concerning direction the country is heading. The Trump administration’s baseless actions increasingly threaten the First Amendment and the democratic values that the United States is founded on. The Trump administration needs to reevaluate its true motive in targeting students who truly pose very little risk.
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TOP PHOTO: As part of the President Donald Trump’s policies, college students are having their visas revoked and immigration status impacted. (Courtesy of Envato Elements)
Éloise Kangwai is a staff writer for The Express. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @sycamora8.
