At least 39 international students in the Bay Area have now had their student visas revoked by the Trump administration. Ian Cull reports.
At least 39 international students in the Bay Area have now had their student visas revoked by the Trump administration.
Some of the impacted students are from UC Berkeley, Stanford and San Jose State University.
"They're scared and that's what the Trump administration wants," said Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area. "That's what they're attempting to do here and we need universities to step up to protect their students."
Administrators at several schools said they are providing resources to the international students impacted and encouraging them to get an attorney.
Stanford on Tuesday said additional students were impacted, but declined to update its numbers.
The wave of revocations follows reports of detainments at some colleges around the country. In Massachusetts, protests were held at Tufts University after a PhD students was detained by ICE steps from campus and had her visa terminated.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the student of supporting Hamas and the activists claim the wave of cancelled visas appears to be targeting foreign-born students who participate in political activism.
"Once you've lost your visa, you're no longer legally able to be in the United States and we have a right like every country in the world has a right to remove you from our country," Rubio said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it is too early to tell if all of the students impacted were active in protests.
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"The Trump administration is making good on its promise to target immigrants and to clamp down on free speech," Billoo said. "It is now time for all of us to make good on our promise to resist and to protect each other."
Andrew Newcomb, a San Jose immigration attorney, said the feds have the legal right to revoke student visas because they are considered discretionary.
"What we're seeing now is a significant departure of what used to be the framework for revoking people's student visas, which generally about failing to maintain academic standing or representing some kind of public safety [risk]," Newcomb said.
But for students who may be detained, Newcomb also said there are ways to fight it.
"People do have the procedural right to file a habeas petition outside of immigration court in a federal court, which challenges the government's ability to be able to detain someone and forces them to produce some kind of evidence of criminal wrongdoing," Newcomb said.
Anyone concerned about their visa status should first call an immigration attorney, experts said.
