Federal authorities revoked visas of dozens of international students at California schools this week, part of a widening crackdown against international students and visa holders by the Trump administration.
At Stanford University, six current or former students’ visas have been revoked, school officials announced Friday. Visas of numerous students or recent graduates at University of California schools have also been revoked, including four at UC Berkeley, six at UC San Diego, eight at UCLA and 12 at UC Davis.
The revocations come less than two weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department had revoked 300 or more student visas. Many of those whose visas have been revoked appear to be foreign-born students who have engaged in political activism.
“It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day,” Rubio said at a March 27 news conference. “Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas.”
The Trump administration has come under widespread criticism for the deportation efforts. Around the country, federal immigration agents — often not in uniform and wearing masks — have picked up students and professors, sometimes detaining them in facilities hundreds of miles from their homes with little information about why they had been targeted.
At Stanford, University officials learned of the development during a “routine check” of the SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor) Database, according to a note to students posted on the university website.
Four current students and two recent graduates were affected.
“Stanford notified the students of the revocations and made external legal assistance available to them,” officials said, but declined to identify the students, citing privacy concerns.
Officials said they were not aware of additional details about the revocations or the reasons for them and were not aware of any immigration authorities on campus Friday.
Officials with the University of California system confirmed Saturday that visas of students at multiple schools had been revoked.
On Friday, officials in UC’s Office of the President issued a statement saying that the university system was “aware that international students across several of our campuses have been impacted” by recent visa revocations.
“We are committed to doing what we can to support all members of our community as they exercise their rights under the law,” the statement said.
At UC Berkeley, officials confirmed that visas of four current students or recent graduates were revoked this week and said the university is providing students with resources to navigate the process and encouraging them to seek legal counsel. Two of the affected people are current students — one an undergraduate, and one a graduate student. The two others are recent graduates engaged in the STEM OPT program, which provides work experiences in their field of study, according to university spokesperson Janet Gilmore.
“Campus officials (and the University of California) are committed to doing what they can to support all members of our community as they exercise their rights under the law,” she said in an email. “In doing so, the university will continue to follow all applicable state and federal laws.”
UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla released a statement Friday confirming that the university was notified “without warning” Thursday that five UC San Diego students’ F-1 visas were terminated and a sixth student denied entry at the border, detained and deported.
“The federal government has not explained the reasons behind these terminations,” Khosla said. “The students have been notified, and we are working directly with them to provide support. We recognize that recent federal immigration actions, whether occurring locally, within the UC system, or across the country, are distressing for many in our campus community. … UC San Diego is enriched by the contributions of our international students, and we are proud to be a destination for the brightest minds from all over the world.”
At UCLA, international student representative Syed Tamim Ahmad confirmed that eight UCLA students’ visas have been revoked.
Officials from colleges around the country have learned that authorities have revoked students’ entry visas without notice and, in many cases, terminated their legal residency status, at schools including Arizona State, Cornell, North Carolina State, the University of Oregon, the University of Texas and the University of Colorado.
For example, visas of five students at Minnesota State University in Mankato were revoked Friday, and earlier this year, the Trump administration’s detention of and efforts to deport pro-Palestinian students such as Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University and Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts sparked outrage and criticism.
The State Department has revoked visas of some students under an obscure law barring noncitizens whose presence could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” President Donald Trump invoked the law in a January order demanding action against campus antisemitism.
But some students targeted in recent weeks have had no clear link to political activism. Some have been ordered to leave over misdemeanor crimes or traffic infractions, Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, told the Associated Press. In some cases, students were targeted for infractions that had been previously reported to the government.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach St. John Barned-Smith: stjohn.smith@sfchronicle.com
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