Pro-Palestine protesters gather on the campus of Columbia University in New York City, NY. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
On March 8, Palestinian graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by immigration agents in his Columbia University apartment building under allegations that he had been spreading pro-Hamas propaganda. The 30-year-old is not only a green card holder but is also married to an American citizen who is pregnant with their child; in other words, he has several reasons to legally remain in the United States. Regardless, Khalil is currently in custody in Louisiana, awaiting possible deportation as his case moves from court to court.
This case was one in a series of arrests of international college students across the United States following President Donald Trump’s initiation of a nationwide crackdown on university campus protesters. Since then, students have been detained, sent to detention facilities and even deported at an unprecedented rate. While the Trump administration began this crackdown by concentrating on students who allegedly participated in pro-Palestine or pro-Hamas activism within campus grounds, it has since expanded, and most of these proceedings have been carried out without formal proof that the student supported the terrorist organization.
Many of these students are either legal permanent residents or live in the U.S. through work or student visas. However, recent cases involving students getting their visas revoked or being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raise crucial questions about the rights and protections that they receive, as well as the underlying legal factors that authorize these revocations and detainments.
Visa revocations are frequently linked to a student’s criminal history. However, many universities have only reported minor infractions like traffic violations, and many recent cases have involved students with clean track records. For Mahmoud Khalil, the Trump administration sought to deport him on the legal basis of a rarely cited immigration law concerning foreign policy. Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) referenced a clause that gives the Secretary of State the authority to deport anyone if it is decided that the person would have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” This claim was rejected by Khalil’s lawyer Sam Sisay, who argued that there was no evidence that Khalil supported any terrorist organization.
Recently, the same foreign policy risk clause has been cited in several visa revocation cases involving students without criminal records. In an amicus brief (a legal document that individuals or organizations submit to the court out of their interest in a pending case) supporting a lawsuit filed by Khalil, a group of immigration lawyers reviewed legal records for precedents of the foreign policy risk clause being invoked in visa revocations. They found that out of 11.7 million cases, this clause had been used only 15 times before this year and had resulted in deportation in only four cases, despite being 35 years old.
Legal experts, including Adam Cox, a law professor at New York University, warned that if the administration continues to apply this provision widely to deport students, it would mark a significant departure from traditional practices.
“If the administration began to use that in a widespread way to arrest people and argue that they’re deportable, that would be an enormous change from historical practice,” Cox said.
On March 17, Georgetown University graduate student Badar Khan Suri was also arrested by immigration officers and had his visa revoked, despite having no criminal record and no known criminal charges. His attorney called his detention “beyond contemptible.” Suri is currently set to appear before an immigration judge in May for his deportation proceedings, but he has filed a habeas corpus petition in a federal court in Virginia to hopefully be released from detention.
“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said on X. Nonetheless, when asked to provide proof, there was no response from the DHS or the State Department.
According to immigration lawyers, when international students have their visas revoked, they often remain legal residents through the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVIS). This means they can stay in the country as long as they are enrolled in a course. However, in recent weeks, the Trump administration has revoked hundreds of student visas while federal immigration officials seem to be simultaneously terminating students’ SEVIS status.
This easily permits ICE to detain and deport these students. University officials claim that the Trump administration has been manipulating the visa system to such an extent that it is restricting the university’s capacity to help support students who may be targeted.
As the number of affected students grows, the broader implications of these actions on academic freedom and constitutional rights remain a key point of contention. In light of the Trump administration’s ambiguous rationale and its use of a rarely invoked foreign policy clause to justify visa revocations and deportations, many are wondering whether the Trump administration’s approach is setting a dangerous legal precedent for the treatment of international students in the United States.
By Sophia Li