The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has revoked the visa of another university student without providing any prior explanation or notice, in a continuation of the recent U.S. government clampdown on pro-Palestine activists across the country.
In New York City, Tania Tetlow, a Fordham University president, confirmed in an e-mail that an undergraduate student’s visa had been revoked “without explanation and without notice.”
“In the last few days, a growing number of students from a wide range of countries have had their visas revoked without explanation and without notice. Today we discovered that this has affected one of our own undergraduate students,” the email said, without naming the targeted student.
“We have assembled a working group, including faculty members, to help us navigate these issues, plan our response, and provide support.”
Tetlow underlined that the revocation was part of a broader trend affecting international students from various countries, which is a “source of growing distress and anxiety.” He also called on all students who experience changes to their immigration status to contact Fordham Public Safety office.
Moreover, Fordham University spokesperson Bob Howe stated that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had provided no explanation for the revocation, and the university was unaware of the cause.
Trump has begun following through on a threat to deport all non-citizen university activists with ties to the pro-Palestine protests, which rocked the US last spring, with students staging daily protests in college campuses across the country for weeks.
The crackdown intensified since U.S. immigration agents arrested Mahmoud Kahlil, a graduate of Columbia University, on March 8. Kahlil, who is being held in an immigration detention center in Louisiana, faces deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who personally signed off on his arrest, recently said that Washington had revoked at least 300 foreign students’ visas. Trump officials have accused these students of being “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests” of the U.S. over their condemnation of Israel’s months-long genocidal war on Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, at least 50,669 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 115,225 other individuals have been injured in the brutal Israeli military onslaught on Gaza since October 7, 2023.
