The actions by the federal government to terminate students’ legal status have left hundreds of scholars at risk of detention and deportation.
Their schools range from private universities like Harvard and Stanford to large public institutions like the University of Maryland and Ohio State University to some small liberal arts colleges.
At least 901 students at 128 colleges and universities have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since mid-March, according to a review of university statements and correspondence with school officials.
In lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security, students have argued the government lacked justification to cancel their visa or terminate their legal status.
Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but colleges say some students are being singled out over infractions as minor as traffic violations, including some long in the past. In some cases, students say it’s unclear why they were targeted.
“The timing and uniformity of these terminations leave little question that DHS has adopted a nationwide policy, whether written or not, of mass termination of student [legal] status,” ACLU of Michigan attorneys wrote in a lawsuit on behalf of students at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan.
In New Hampshire, a federal judge last week issued a restraining order in the case of a Dartmouth College computer science student from China, Liu Xiaotian, who had his status terminated by the government. Attorneys have filed similar challenges in federal court in Georgia and California.
In some high-profile cases, including the detention of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil , President Donald Trump’s administration has argued it should be allowed to deport noncitizens over involvement in pro-Palestinian activism. But in the vast majority of visa revocations, colleges say there is no indication affected students had a role in protests. (AP)
