A total of five international students at the University of Iowa have now had their student visas revoked, according to a news release sent out early Tuesday morning by COGS, the union for graduate student workers at UI. COGS said the number of visa revocations was provided during a webinar on Monday hosted by UI International Programs Dean and Associate Provost Russell Ganim.
“University officials say ICE has not encountered UI students whose visas have currently been revoked,” COGS said.
The union pointed out that the revocation of a student visa “does not necessarily mean these students’ ability to remain legally in the country is revoked or that their student status is altered. Should a student’s visa or status become altered, there is the possibility of reinstatement.”
Last Thursday, Dean Ganim sent an email to UI international students and scholars, informing them of the first student visa revocation the university became aware of.
“On April 4, the university learned the U.S. State Department had canceled the visa of a University of Iowa graduate student,” Gamin said in the email. “The university did not initiate the action and was not aware of any violation. UI’s International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) immediately reached out to the student, offered to meet, and outlined next steps.”
The Gazette reported on Tuesday morning that Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa confirmed “they have students who’ve been flagged in the federal Student Exchange and Visitor Information System — through which visas are being revoked.” ISU and UNI declined to provide further information, citing privacy as the reason.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has revoked an unprecedented number of student visas, without informing either the students or the institutions they are studying at. Almost all the student visa revocations reported so far appear to be in response to students participating in protests or publicly expressing views the Trump administration disapproves of. A small number of the revocations are based on problems with paperwork or minor offenses, like traffic violations.
The Trump administration is invoking a seldom used, and previously little known, section of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which was passed at the height of the McCarthy-era Red Scare. The section gives the Secretary of State the power to order the deportation of a person legally in the United States if the secretary makes the determination the person’s presence in the country could have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”
“We do it every day,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said regarding revoking student visas during a news conference on March 27. “Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.”
For Rubio, “lunatics” covers students who participated in protests, and even those who wrote op-eds in student newspapers critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
When the Secretary of State made his remarks 19 days ago, he said over 300 student visas had been revoked. According to Inside Higher Ed, which has created a tracker to compile data on student visa revocations, by last Friday that number had risen to more than 700 students at 140 colleges and universities. As of Tuesday morning’s update, Inside Higher Ed was reporting that almost 1,200 students at 180 universities and colleges had their visas revoked. That number is likely too low, because the tracker’s information doesn’t include all known revocations — for example, it only lists one at UI instead of five.
The day before Rubio declared the State Department was revoking student visas “every day,” the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) sued the Trump administration in federal court in an effort to stop the revocation of student visas based on a student’s publicly expressed opinions or participating in peaceful protests.
The Trump administration “is terrorizing students and faculty for their exercise of First Amendment rights in the past, intimidating them from exercising those rights now, and silencing political viewpoints that the government disfavors,” the lawsuit states.
Twenty-one state attorneys general have signed onto an amicus brief supporting the lawsuit. All the attorneys general are Democrats.
On Monday, the Trump administration filed a response to the lawsuit asking the court to dismiss it. The administration’s attorney denied student visa revocations are being done for ideological reasons and claimed AAUP has a faulty understanding of the First Amendment.
In its Tuesday news release, COGS said an attorney affiliated with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is preparing to file a lawsuit “which will slow down the visa revocations, at least temporarily.”
COGS recommends anyone whose “student visa is revoked or flagged in Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS) … contact the UI Immigration Law Clinic and UI International Students and Scholars Services.”
“At this time, it is recommended that international students carry physical color photocopies of immigration documents at all times,” the union said. “See guidance from the University of Washington, which applies in Iowa.”
COGS operates a fund to assist with legal and other expenses, and asks that anyone in need of such assistance contact the union.
“This is a scary time,” COGS said. “It is also a time to stand for justice and against those in power.”