International students being forced out of the US without any prior notice?

In a stark departure from previous rules, the Trump administration has begun revoking foreign student visas without prior notice or explanation, compelling students to leave the United States immediately.

This shift has led to a surge in abrupt terminations within the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the federal database tracking international student status, pushing students into legal uncertainty, according to a report by The Economic Times, today, Saturday, April 5.

Universities' troubled with SEVIS cancellations
College administrators across the country report that these revocations occur without formal communication from federal authorities. Many institutions only learn of the changes after students receive distressing emails notifying them of their revoked SEVIS records.

“Students get an email from their universities saying that your SEVIS has been revoked.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,” said Rajiv Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com.

At Minnesota State University, Mankato, five students had their visas revoked under murky circumstances, discovered only after a routine records check prompted by the detention of a Turkish student from the University of Minnesota, whose case the US State Department tied to a drunk driving conviction.

Elsewhere, students at Arizona State, Cornell, North Carolina State, the University of Oregon, the University of Texas, and the University of Colorado have faced similar SEVIS terminations, some accompanied by detentions even before their schools were informed.

Why are these students being deported?
Khanna noted that the grounds for these revocations are inconsistent. “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. We also found some instances where there was no finding of guilt.”

At the University of Texas at Austin, two graduates, one from India and one from Lebanon, lost their student status after criminal record checks, despite being employed under Optional Practical Training (OPT).

Furthermore, the administration has cited that visa cancellations will be allowed if a student’s presence is deemed to have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” often linked to campus protests, though Khanna argues this justification frequently lacks relevance.

Previously, students with revoked visas could continue their studies in the US, as long as they remained enrolled. That buffer has now been eliminated.