'Growing fear': Indian students are half of 327 recent visa revocation cases in the US, and that's not even the full picture
The DHS revoked thousands of student visas, and the analysis by the American Immigration Lawyers Association is only a fraction of the total World India News
Indian students account for half of 327 recent visa revocation cases examined by a top US immigration lawyers' body, amid Donald Trump's war on campuses. The Trump administration is cracking down on foreign students over activism and antisemitism on American campuses.
The agencies responsible have revoked thousands of student visas, and the analysis by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is only a fraction of the total cases.
"50 per cent of these students were from India, followed by 14 per cent from China," said AILA in a brief titled 'The Scope of Immigration Enforcement Actions Against International Students,' published on Thursday (Apr 17).
"Other significant countries represented in this data include South Korea, Nepal, and Bangladesh," it added, based on its analysis of the 327 visa revocation cases.
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The Trump administration's crackdown on foreign students
The picture given by the lawyers' body is not a complete one: it is only based on an analysis of recent legal pleas against such crackdowns.
For the past four months, the US State Department and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been looking into the data on foreign students over their activism.
The process is largely automated, with some alleging that the screening is done using AI, or artificial intelligence.
This meant that even students without any link to campus protests, or even a criminal history, also end up at the wrong end of the crackdown.
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In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that more than 300 student visas have been revoked.
He also announced the "Catch and Revoke" programme to screen student visa holders, even looking into their social media posts to find evidence of them supporting protests.
The main focus is on whether the students are supporting the Palestinians amid the Gaza war between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
Recent campus protests had evolved into antisemitism on some American campuses.
Apart from the protests or activism, hundreds of student visas were revoked over their run-ins with law.
This included cases where there was no conviction.
Trump administration is scrutinising SEVIS records
According to the lawyers' body, ICE has terminated 'thousands' of visas under the SEVIS records.
SEVIS or Student and Exchange Visitor Information System is a portal of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It tracks information on international students and exchange programme visitors in the US.
These administrative actions are unprecedented, with a wide-ranging, leading to a number of legal questions that will likely require litigation to resolve, AILA said.
According to an ICE release, visa status of 4,736 international students were terminated in the SEVIS system.
Most of those affected held F1 visas.
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AILA's analysis was based on 327 reports of visa revocations and SEVIS terminations from attorneys, students, and university employees.
Out of these, 50 per cent were on Optional Practical Training (OPT), meaning they had graduated and were employed in the United States.
Now, they are unable to work.
The top states impacted by such visa revocations includeTexas, California, New York, Michigan and Arizona.
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Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh raised the issue in a post on X, asking India to intervene.
"A press statement issued yesterday by the American Immigration Lawyers Association is cause for concern to us in India," Ramesh said, adding that there is "growing fear and apprehension" among the students.
The reasons for revocation are random and unclear, he pointed out.
"Will the External Affairs Minister [S Jaishankar] take note and raise the concern with his US counterpart [Marco Rubio]?," he asked in the post.
