WASHINGTON (AP) — Initially, the Bar Association of Bars began receiving inquiries from two students a day. These were foreigners studying in the US and they were Found in early April Their legal status had ended with little notice. To their knowledge, none of the students committed any deportable crimes.
Recently, phones have started to get flooded. Hundreds of students are calling for you to say They lost their legal statusseeking advice on what to do next.
“We thought it would be unusual,” said Matthew Meiona, a Boston-based immigration officer who receives six calls a day from panicked international students. “But now it seems to be furious pretty quickly.”
The speed and scope of the federal government’s efforts to end the legal status of international students have surprised universities across the country. The corners of higher education are barely mentioned, from prestigious private universities, large public research institutes and small liberal arts colleges to schools where students discover the end of their status one after another.
At least 790 students from more than 120 universities have revoked their visas or ended their legal status in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press review of the university’s statement and communications with school officials. Advocacy groups that collect reports from universities say more students could be caught up in the crackdown.
The students clearly targeted minor violations
Last year, around 1.1 million international students were in the United States. This is an essential source of income for tuition-driven universities. International students are not eligible for federal financial aid and their ability to pay tuition fees often consider whether they are hospitalized in American schools. Often they pay in full.
Many of the students who have lost their legal status come from India and China, making up more than half of international students at American universities. However, dismissals are not limited to any part of the world, the lawyer said.
Four students from two Michigan universities are suing Trump administration officials after the F-1 student status ended last week. Ramis Wadodo, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the students had never been given a clear reason.
“We don’t know, and that’s the scary part,” he said.
Students were informed of their status termination from the university via email. The reason given was “checking criminal history and/or their visas have been revoked,” Wadodo said, but none of them were charged or found guilty of the crime. Some had either speeding or parking tickets, but he said they had nothing. Only one student who knew his entry visa had been revoked said.
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department had revoked visas held by visitors who are rebutting national interests, including those who protested Israeli war in Gaza and those facing criminal charges.
However, many students say they don’t fall into those categories. Students have filed lawsuits in several states, claiming that they have been denied a legitimate procedure.
In New Hampshire, a federal judge last week granted a temporary restraining order to restore doctoral status. A student at Dartmouth College at Xiaotian Liu. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Wisconsin issued a similar order, rulering that the government cannot take steps to detain or revoke visas for gradient students at the University of Wisconsin Madison University.
On a break from the past, the Fed will cancel student status directly
At many universities, authorities learned that legal immigration status for some international students was fired when staff checked databases managed by the Department of Homeland Security. In the past, legal status has been normally renewed after the university told the government that students were not studying in schools, according to university officials.
Fanta AW, CEO of NAFSA, the International Association of Educators, said that since 9/11, the system of tracking international students’ admissions and movements has been under the control of immigration and customs enforcement. She said recent developments have made students scared how quickly they can try to get on the wrong side of enforcement.
“We don’t need more than a few to create fear,” AW said. “We will not clarify why this is and what the scope has been.”
Her group says as many as 1,300 students have lost their visas or have ended their status, based on reports from the university.
The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Foreigners subject to deletion procedures are usually sent notifications to appear in immigration court on a particular day, but lawyers say that affected students have not received notifications and do not know what their next step is.
Some schools have told students to leave the country to avoid the risk of being detained or deported. However, some students sued for fire and remained in the US while they were being processed.
Moreover, others caught up in legal spheres are not students. They remained after graduation from “optional practical training,” which allows employment in the US after earning their degrees, or up to three years of science and technology graduates. Meanwhile, graduates will wait to receive an H-1B or other employment visa if they want to continue working in the US
Approximately 242,000 foreigners in the United States are employed through this “practical training in options.” Approximately 500,000 people have graduate degrees, and an additional 342,000 are undergraduate students.
Among the students who filed the lawsuit is a doctorate from Georgia Tech. Students who are scheduled to graduate on May 5th will be offering job openings to participate in faculty. His lawyer, Charles Cuck, said the student was likely targeted for fire because of unpaid traffic from when the student lent his car to a friend. In the end, the violation was dismissed.
“There’s a case after exactly that, there’s no fundamental crime,” said Kak, who represents 17 students in a federal lawsuit. He said his law firm had heard of it from hundreds of students.
“These are kids who find their positions vulnerable under the Trump administration,” he said. “They preyed on a very vulnerable population. These kids are not hiding. They are in school.”
Some international students adopt daily life.
A Chinese student at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill University said he began carrying his passports and immigration documents with him on advice from the university’s international student office. A student who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by authorities said that even students like her, who have no criminal history, suffered from seeing her end.
“That’s the scariest part because I don’t know if you’re going to be the next person,” she said. ___
Seminella was reported from Raleigh, North Carolina, and Keller was reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico
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