Lawsuits, rallies ratchet up pressure on White House over international student visas

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DENVER ‒ Lawsuits, rallies and pointed bipartisan questions are ratcheting up the pressure on the Trump administration to explain its growing cancellation of international student visas, forcing hundreds of students and their families to depart the country within days.

A broadening number of students are suing to stop the revocations, which are also being contested by 19 Democratic state attorneys general. Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, has demanded answers about what he called the Trump administration's "arbitrary, craven cruelty."

The Associated Press has tallied at least 1,000 revocations based on news reports and university statements. The cancellations reflect a small percentage of the estimated 1.5 million international students studying in the United States, but have sent shockwaves through the collegiate community.

"It's incredibly scary," said Leo Gerden, 22, an international student from Sweden studying economics and government at Harvard. "It feels like we're being used as poker chips in a battle with the White House."

Gerden on April 17 helped organize a 300-person rally at Harvard, which is President Donald Trump's latest target. The president and his administration accuse Harvard, among other universities, of allowing antisemitism to flourish on campus, endangering Jewish students. More than 25% of Harvard's total enrollment is international students, with about 6,800 of them this academic year.

Harvard has refused Trump's demands for dramatic changes to courses and staffing, and federal officials subsequently threatened to ban the university from accepting international students. Many of the students who've lost visas nationwide appear to have no connection to pro-Palestinian protest movements.

Federal officials have demanded Harvard turn over a list of international students who participated in those protests last year, and Harvard administrators refused, impressing students, Gerden said. Gerden said he understands Trump might target his visa for speaking out, but could not in good conscience remain silent.

"If we give Trump five names or 10 names, he'll come back and ask for 100," Gerden said. "What Trump is doing right now is trying to divide us. We can't let him push the boundaries. But that might come at a very high cost."

Blumenthal said there's been more than 50 revocations in Connecticut, including at Yale and Wesleyan. In a letter to the Trump administration, Blumenthal sought an accounting of how many visas have been revoked, the reasons cited for each one, and whether students were afforded due process to contest the decision.

In some cases, students who are within weeks of graduating are being forced home. Immigration experts said they've never seen the federal government make such sweeping changes to the ordinarily low-profile process of hosting international students.

"These revocations are having a horrific, chilling ripple effect on the students and staff who enrich and elevate our colleges and universities," Blumenthal said at a April 17 rally in Yale's New Haven hometown.

In Utah, where at least 50 visas have been revoked, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox said at a press conference he's concerned the White House hasn't offered any explanations, and Utah would "very much like to figure that out."

Among the students targeted in Utah is a Japanese national finishing his PhD at Brigham Young University. His attorney told reporters that Suguru Onda had gotten several speeding tickets, and in 2019 was ticketed for catching too many fish during a church outing. Onda told the Deseret News that although his attorney is fighting the cancellation, he's preparing to leave Utah with his wife and their five kids.

"I've started packing everything in case I need to leave," he told the paper.

A coalition of attorneys general has joined a suit brought by the American Association of University Professors seeking to halt the visa cancellations. Many critics of the cancellations say they appear to be targeted toward students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, and represent an illegal ideological purge.

According to the federal government, California is home to the largest number of international students, and the most popular majors among international students are computer science, language, and business administration and management. People from India and China represent the largest proportion of international students, accounting for about half of the overall enrollment, according to federal officials.

UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk in a message to campus sought to reassure students that the university supports them.

"We recognize that these actions can bring feelings of tremendous uncertainty and anxiety to our community," he wrote. "You are not alone. You belong at UCLA, and you are an essential part of our community."

Trump administration attorneys say the White House has the right to order non-citizens to leave the United States if they're deemed a security risk. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he's been revoking visas based on support for terror organizations like the pro-Palestinian Hamas.

Justice Department attorneys argued in court this week that under federal immigration laws and "well-established Supreme Court precedent, the government is able to take adverse immigration action for certain expression."

In an April 16 announcement, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned Harvard that it would lose both federal funding and the right to host international students if it doesn't fall in line. Last spring, Harvard students protesting Israel's retaliatory attacks on Gaza occupied the university's central courtyard for 20 days and staged a 24-hour sit-in in another building.

University officials initially planned to suspend five students for their participation but downgraded that to probation, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported. The university also withheld degrees from 13 students during last year's spring graduation ceremony, prompting a 1,000-person walkout, the Crimson reported.

"Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism ‒ driven by its spineless leadership ‒ fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security," Noem said in a statement. "With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard's position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars."

She added: "Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Harvard's foreign visa-holding rioters and faculty have spewed antisemitic hate, targeting Jewish students. With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard can fund its own chaos ‒ DHS won't. And if Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students."

The Anti-Defamation League, the country's largest Jewish rights group, gave Harvard an "F" rating on its 2024 campus safety report card last year, citing what it called a "serious problem" with antisemitism.

But in a statement released April 18, the league said the administration has gone too far in its response. "They also are insisting on reforms that go far beyond ensuring the civil rights of Jewish students and faculty. They are imposing or suggesting extremely severe penalties that don’t tie to the issue of reducing antisemitism, such as investigating its tax-exempt status."

This story was updated to fix a typo.