By Daniela L. Ginsburg
Boston University News Service
The federal government has revoked more than 1,800 student visas of international students across the United States without notice. According to the Boston Globe, nearly 100 student visas have been revoked in New England.
According to the AP, the Trump administration has argued students involved in activism supporting Palestine should be grounds for deporting noncitizens, including international students. However, a large number of affected students had no role in protests.
“We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campus. We’ve given you a visa and you decide to do that — we’re going to take it away,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a recent news conference.
Around 23% of the students in the BU Class of 2028 are international. Boston University has received numerous media inquiries about student visas being terminated, according to BU spokesperson Colin Riley in an email to Boston University News Service.
Riley wrote that the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) is routinely reviewing SEVIS, or the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, to update international students with new information following U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) terminating student visas without notice.
International students will be immediately notified when the university receives information about the termination of visas, and the university will also provide students with resources to find appropriate immigration counsel.
In an email sent to BU students, faculty and staff, BU President Melissa Gilliam highlighted a BU Today article outlining the University’s resources for international students and emphasized the university’s priority of protecting its community.
“As an administration, we will protect our faculty, staff, and students to the best of our ability, and together, let us all continue to look out for one another,” Gilliam wrote.
In another email on Friday, Gilliam shared the university’s launch of a Support Pathways Initiative, a resource hub designed to support, inform and guide the school’s global community.
The initiative provides international students and staff with a one-time, no-cost legal counsel on immigration-related matters, info on summer housing and answers for commonly asked questions.
BU has also provided “Know Your Rights” cards around campus for students to ensure their safety and their right to remain silent to law enforcement.
Current international student groups and students at BU did not respond to comment on the matters.
“It just feels like you’re less welcome in this country as time goes on,” said a BU graduate in an anonymous interview with CBS News.
