Harvard officials learned of the cancellations while conducting a "routine rounds review" of their case files. Over 300 foreign students throughout the United States have had visas revoked for standing with Hamas or other listed terrorist groups.
US immigration authorities have revoked a chain of student visas for foreign nationals at top universities like Harvard, Tufts, and Stanford in a growing number of instances that have sent campus administrators into a flurry.
The cancellations, typically discovered by schools only after the federal immigration statistics are released, have reached students as well as newly minted graduates, according to recent reports over several days by colleges around the country.
Amid the Donald Trump administration's increased crackdown on foreign students who participated in pro-Palestine demonstrations, some lost their right to remain in America for liking or sharing a social media post. Three Harvard students and two recent graduates were now suddenly stripped of their student visas.
Identity of suspicious students
One of the most high-profile is Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and Tufts University PhD student, who was arrested last month by federal agents while walking down a street.
Another is Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate whose visa was revoked after he took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Both Ozturk and Khalil are being detained in immigration detention facilities as the government tries to deport them.
Other universities in row
But recently, dozens of California students and recent alumni have had their visas revoked on several campuses, including UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, and Stanford, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. Two unidentified students have sued in federal court, claiming their visas were revoked without due process, in some instances for minor legal violations like traffic offenses.
The university learned of 6 students having their student visas revoked," Stanford said in a statement on Friday. A university immigration working group meets regularly, and the school said it does not share student or employee records with immigration authorities except under court order.
official statement by Harvard officials
Harvard announced in a statement issued Sunday that it had notified three current Harvard students and two graduated students in the past week or so that they had lost their student visas.
The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper, reported that Harvard officials discovered the visa cancellations in a "routine rounds review" of their files.
"Such information is not known to us about the revocations or their reasons," Harvard International Office said in the letter.
It continued, "…but we do know that similar numbers of scholars and students in universities all over the country have seen similar changes of status during about the same period."
This is coming just days after several students from Stanford University, the University of California, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst had their student visas canceled.
Possibility of deportation
After a student's visa (F-1B) is revoked, the student no longer has the right to remain legally in the US and is exposed to deportation back to their respective country. To remain in the US without lawful immigration status might result in fines, detention, and/or deportation.
Two recent graduates and four students lost their student visa status at Stanford, the university confirmed. The university learned about it while conducting a routine check of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database. SEVIS is an internet-based system that monitors nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors in the United States.
Stanford immediately informed the students of the revocations and granted them access to external legal services. The university, citing privacy concerns, refused to identify the students or provide more information. It also reported that, as of April 4, the date when the university first heard about the revocations, it did not know of any federal immigration presence on its campus.
In the same way, seven current students and five recent graduates from the University of California have had their F-1 visas canceled. This number may shift as events progress, according to the university. No federal agents have entered the campus or detained any members of the university community, said Chancellor Gary S. May.
Five foreign students of the University of Massachusetts Amherst have had their visas canceled and their student status revoked by the authorities.
Earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had declared that more than 300 foreign students have had their visas canceled for backing Hamas or other terror groups designated by the US. Rubio had introduced an AI-based app, "Catch and Revoke", to identify and revoke the visas of such students.
The officials have reportedly begun tightly monitoring the social media activities of the new student visa applicants under all F (study in an academic institution), M (study in a vocational institute), and J (exchange program) visa categories. Applicants are to be debarred if they are identified as promoting terror organizations.