Trump administration cancels at least nine more student visas in Bay Area
At least 21 Bay Area international students who attended UC Berkeley, Stanford, San Jose State and Cal State East Bay are among perhaps dozens statewide and hundreds nationally to have their visas revoked, an apparent response to what federal officials call “antisemitism” and critics say is punishment for protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.
Officials at Stanford University and UC Berkeley — two campuses that saw major and divisive protests in support of Palestinians after the brutal Middle East conflict erupted in October 2023 — said that six recent students from each university had their visas terminated as of Monday afternoon.
Six students at San Jose State University also had their legal permission to live and study in the U.S. recently terminated by federal authorities, spokesperson Michelle Smith McDonald confirmed Monday.
So did three current or former students at CSU East Bay in Hayward, a spokesperson said.
And late last week, UC San Diego officials also announced that five international students had lost their visas.
“It’s all been pretty dreadful,” Carlos Rodriguez, a math major at Stanford University who knew one of the students whose visa was recently terminated, said Monday of the atmosphere on campus in an interview. “All of us know at least one international student — we’re all worried that something might happen to the people we care about.”
After taking office in January, President Donald Trump signed an “Executive Order to Combat Anti-Semitism” calling for action “to protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities,” a response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses nationwide. Trump also demanded “the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose department oversees visas, posted on X last month that “we will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
It’s unclear just how many student visas the Trump administration has terminated, or why in specific circumstances, with more and more canceled visas announced nationally every day.
The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest U.S. Muslim civil rights group, citing reports that more than 300 international students across the country have had their student visas revoked and are being ordered to leave the the country, said Monday the move violates students’ First Amendment free speech rights.
“It is unacceptable — and deeply un-American — for students to be punished for standing up for human rights,” said CAIR-CA CEO Hussam Ayloush. “These politically motivated revocations are not only chilling but an attack on the legacy of student activism in this country.”
Last week, more than 100 students from across the Bay Area gathered in San Francisco to condemn what they called the Trump administration’s “repressive crackdown” on the national student movement for Palestine.
Rodriguez said he was confused why the visa was canceled for the student he knew, who he said wasn’t active in the pro-Palestine movement on campus.
“Students are panicking,” said Fuad Dadabhoy, executive director of the Orange County-based nonprofit Manara West, a resource provider for Muslim college students, which is tallying the canceled visas.
Dadabhoy said roughly 35 other students have recently lost their legal status statewide, but he’s not yet sure why.
“The information that comes out is at a trickle right now, versus a flood,” he said.
Of the six international students with terminated visas at UC Berkeley, one is an undergraduate, three are graduate students and two are recent graduates of a STEM program that extends legal status for two years, officials said Monday. UC Berkeley has the eighth-most international students of any university in the U.S.
A false rumor of a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents spread on campus last week, students said.
On Monday, UC Berkeley political science student Justin Taylor was shocked to learn about the six student visas being revoked.
“That’s wicked, that’s disgusting,” he said.
Student demonstrations by pro-Palestinian activists have been a regular occurrence on campus since dozens of tents popped up in Sproul Plaza last year in protest of the Israel-Hamas war.
More recently, UC Berkeley students rallied against the arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia, said psychology student Aiden Hernandez. Lately, he said he’s seen more activism online than on campus.
Spokespersons for the universities declined to say if the visa terminations were in response to pro-Palestinian political activism, citing privacy restrictions. They said that campus officials will continue to support international students, connect them with legal resources and keep them up to speed on the Trump administration’s fast-paced changes to immigration policy.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has subpoenaed personal information of hundreds of UC Berkeley professors who signed petitions during escalating antiwar campus protests, adding to the atmosphere of fear and outrage on campus.
Trump administration officials have also recently canceled federal research funds to university researchers and launched investigations into California universities.