Pupil visas made up 10% of the administration’s total cancellation of 80,000 non-immigrant visas throughout Donald Trump’s second time period, a State Division official advised The PIE Information.
The highest causes for the general revocations had been assault, theft and driving below the affect (DUIs), which accounted for practically half of all revocations this yr, in accordance with the company.
“The State Division revokes a visa any time there is a sign of a possible ineligibility, which incorporates issues like indicators of an overstay, felony exercise, a menace to public security, partaking in any type of terrorist exercise, or offering help to a terrorist organisation,” stated the spokesperson.
The 80,000 determine whole is greater than twice the variety of US visas cancelled in 2024, reflecting the Trump administration’s broad immigration crackdown – which has seen worldwide college students arrested and detained for partaking in pro-Palestinian speech.
The State Division stated roughly 16,000 visas had been pulled for DUIs, 12,000 for assaults and eight,000 for thefts. The division has the discretion to terminate a pupil’s visa at any time.
“Guarantees made, guarantees stored,” introduced the State Division on social media final week, including that President Trump and secretary of state Marco Rubio would “all the time put the protection and pursuits of the American folks first”.
Assault, theft and driving below the affect accounted for nearly half of revocations this yr
US State Division spokesperson
Below the present administration, the US has additionally made it tougher to acquire a visa, implementing tighter social media vetting and expanded screening processes.
In June, a close to month-long suspension of pupil visa appointments at US embassies additionally proved extremely disruptive, with India, China and Nigeria – the nation’s largest sending markets – hardest hit by cancellations and unavailability.
As per the federal government knowledge, roughly 2,000 pupil visas have been revoked since August, when the division declared greater than 6,000 visas in whole had been pulled for a similar causes.
The announcement follows a landmark ruling on September 30 that discovered the administration’s arrests and deportations of worldwide college students for pro-Palestinian advocacy illegal, declaring non-immigrants “unequivocal” rights to free expression.
The federal government instantly stated it could attraction the choice and had beforehand justified the scholars’ detention below one in all Trump’s early directives vowing to take “forceful and unprecedented” steps to fight antisemitism on school campuses.
Historically, pupil visa revocations haven’t been frequent, however since mid-March sudden visa revocations by the State Division have contributed to widespread uncertainty amongst worldwide college students on US campuses.
A visa revocation, whereas vital, solely impacts an individual’s capacity to return to the nation, whereas a pupil SEVIS standing lets them stay within the US.
This spring, the federal government terminated thousands of scholars’ SEVIS data, which had been later restored by the administration in a shock coverage U-turn.
After restoring the data, the federal government proposed increasing the powers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to cancel college students’ authorized standing if the visa they used to enter the US is revoked, although this has not but been introduced as official coverage.
