In conclusion
Fear has been raised by the possibility that it will happen again after hundreds of international students lost their status this spring and then recovered it after lawsuits. Some students claim that they have altered their social media posts, study topics, and college routes.
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International college students are discovering that American speech isn’t as unrestricted as they had believed. As part of an executive order targeting immigration and suspected antisemitism, hundreds of overseas students lost their student status after President Donald Trump took office for a second term.
Even though many of those students have had their status restored since April as a result of lawsuits, international students are afraid that it will happen again, especially at the University of California system, where as of Fall 2024, 13.6% of enrolled students are international.
According to some overseas students who spoke to CalMatters, they have altered their participation in campus events. These changes include restricting their political activism and cleaning up their social media posts, avoiding free speech zones on campus, and choosing different subjects for their research projects.
When the White House published a fact sheet regarding Trump’s Executive Order 14188, Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, in late January, the fear started to grow. It said, “We put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you.” It also recommended revoke the visas of college students who support Hamas.
A few well-known arrests of foreign students have since occurred, such as Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University, a lawful permanent resident who led pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and R Meysa Zt rk at Tufts University, a Turkish national who co-wrote an opinion piece urging her university to divest.Since then, Khalil has been freed on bail, and a federal judge ordered his release. However, international students are worried about how their activities might be used against them as a result of these detentions.
Furthermore, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently declared that the United States would begin sharply removing Chinese student visas, particularly for those pursuing key fields of study or those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
The number of international students who had their status revoked and the campuses they attend have not been disclosed by federal officials. Over 1,800 students nationwide, including more than 200 in California, had their status revoked in the spring, according to news stories collated by Inside Higher Ed.
Only two of the ten UC campuses answered when CalMatters contacted them to ask how many international students had their statuses restored. One student had been deported and 35 UC San Diego student visas have been reactivated as of April 28. According to Kiki Reyes, the media relations manager at UC Santa Barbara, 11 out of the 12 visas have been reinstated, but the situation is still uncertain.
International students are chilling their speech
Because they were afraid of being identified and having their status revoked for speaking in public, none of the international students interviewed for this story wanted their identities or fields of study to be published.
A sophomore at UC Berkeley informed CalMatters that she had been active on campus for approximately a year and a half before witnessing international students losing their visas and hearing about immigration enforcement officers on campus in March. She no longer views protesting in the same way. She said, “Anything I say can be used against me.” In an effort to protect herself and other international students, she has been thinking of innovative ways to become involved. She attends student club meetings, for instance, since she feels more comfortable speaking in private there.
The sophomore stated, “I came to the United States because those are things that I wasn’t comfortable doing in my country.” Speaking up didn’t feel natural to me. Since America is supposed to be a place of freedom, I came here because it seemed like a dictatorship. I was then presented with this. It’s quite disappointing.
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A UK junior at UC Berkeley also reported feeling a lot more liberated the previous year. She intended to take part in last year’s university pro-Palestinian demonstrations but was too busy. She now feels comfort instead of sorrow since she thinks she would have faced repercussions if someone had photographed her close to a protest.
I would have felt free to criticize the administration under a Biden administration. She stated I was free to participate in protests. I feel like I can’t be near a demonstration because of Trump’s latest decision, especially in light of the Columbia students.
An international graduate student at a different UC who wishes to remain anonymous out of concern that he won’t pass his dissertation is engaged in a study on the relationship between global politics and the media. A part on genocide and human rights abuses is included in his research report. He began by covering the conflict between Israel and Hamas. He stated that the faculty had directed him to omit the sections mentioning Israel from his final project.
The graduate student stated, “I’m just disappointed that I could not talk about it in my final events, even though it doesn’t have a big impact on the entire project.” After I deliver this to a group of my department’s faculty, they will grade it and decide whether or not I can graduate based on the paper. It has a minor effect on both freedom of speech and my department.
Balancing the support of Jewish students and due process
Trump pledges in his executive order to defend the civil rights of Jewish individuals who have experienced assault, bodily threats, and harassment on college campuses.
Shir, a Jewish student at UC Irvine who asked not to give her full name out of fear of persecution, feels that a student’s status should be assessed if they are on a visa and openly celebrating terror. She does, however, stress the significance of defining boundaries against hate and terror and avoiding going beyond the law.
“It doesn’t protect [against] antisemitism; it just makes the system more hateful,” Shir wrote in an email. First and first, we should all be treated like human beings.
Despite her support for students’ right to protest, Shir noted that some students have been reciting and extolling the slogans and ideologies of the terrorist group Hamas. Action is required in this situation. At these demonstrations and on campus, I, along with numerous other Jewish students, have been challenged, called a terrorist, told that my family in Israel deserves to die, and even had demonstrators openly defend Hamas’ crimes.
According to UC Davis law professor Raquel Aldana, the Trump administration’s definition of antisemitism is incredibly vague and might be interpreted to encompass anything that is anti-Israel.
They will be observing, among other things, how these universities handle claims of antisemitism, which may turn out to be directed against international students, Aldana said.
The Trump administration’s antisemitism task force is looking into claims of antisemitic occurrences at at least ten universities nationwide, including the University of Southern California, UCLA, and UC Berkeley.
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Aldana claimed that she was unaware of the issues that the investigations were intended to resolve and that it seemed more like a political ploy than a genuine worry.
International students limited on travel options
In response to CalMatters, three UC campuses stated that they had warned international students to exercise caution if they intend to travel abroad.
International students said that their international student offices sent them travel warning emails about the dangers of leaving the country just before spring break. Even though the U.S. State Department website states that continuing students may enter the country at any time, the sophomore student at UC Berkeley claimed that an email from the Berkeley International Offices stated that the office could not guarantee that international students would be able to return to the U.S. if they left the country.
According to the sophomore at UC Berkeley, we had to spend our spring vacation in the United States, [when] individuals wish to return home. It’s incredibly upsetting that they don’t have that option, and I think it’s crazy that nobody at the university can speak out for the few [foreign] students they do have.
In May, the foreign Office at UC Berkeley sent out another email advising continued foreign students who intended to travel abroad to exercise caution during the summer break. The White House issued a Presidential Proclamation on June 4th, imposing limitations on entry into the United States from 19 selected nations. Since the travel restriction might make it impossible for them to return, UC Davis and UC Irvine advised international students from those 19 nations to stay in the United States.
Student newspapers face ethical dilemmas
After a judge granted her release from a Louisiana jail facility in May, ZT RK, the Tufts University student who had been arrested for criticizing her university’s stance to the Israel-Hamas war, returned to Massachusetts. College publications took further safeguards in response to her incarceration.
According to Chris Ponce, editor-in-chief of The California Agit at UC Davis, and Adalia Luo, editor-in-chief of The Guardian, UC San Diego’s student news organization, their opinion departments have been changing. According to Luo, upon request, her organization has eliminated names from pieces written by foreign students. Luo added that the priority is protecting the students even though removing a byline weakens a story s credibility.
UC Davis student news staff has discussed a similar issue. Ponce said they re not simply granting anonymity for anyone who asks. However, they are now more than ever open to removing whole articles if it means protecting the status of international students, which they are doing on a case-by-case basis.
One student newspaper is challenging the Trump administration s policies regarding noncitizen students. The Stanford Daily, represented by theFoundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, is suing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem over immigration laws that allow the revocation of student visas for protected speech.
According to aletter from the editors, far fewer international students are willing to speak to The Daily, and those who do request anonymity. Several international members of our own staff even left their positions at The Daily. Many of those who stayed requested to stop writing news articles related to protests or political events on campus and asked that their previous articles be taken off our website, the letter states.
The junior at UC Berkeley said she writes for a campus political magazine. Once the Trump administration started targeting international students, she asked for the articles to be taken down, and the magazine obliged.
I didn t want my name affiliated with criticisms of the administration, as that would either risk me getting deported or a future visa being rejected. I believe the articles are still inaccessible, and my goal is that they remain so for the rest of Trump s term, the junior said.
Despite fears about sharing their viewpoints publicly, international students say it s important to be advocates for themselves and each other.
The UC Berkeley sophomore said international students should continue to consider their safety as well as their rights.
You should be taking precautions to keep your status and to keep yourself safe, but to also know that if we back down, change will never happen, the sophomore said.
Mercy Sosa contributed to this story. Emewodesh Eshete and Mercy Sosa are contributors with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.
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