More than 300 student visas revoked as government expands reasons for deportation
Kseniia Petrova바카라 게임 웹사이트s path from a Harvard laboratory to an immigration cell began with frogs.
The Russian national who has been working as a researcher at Harvard Medical School failed to declare 바카라 게임 웹사이트non-hazardous바카라 게임 웹사이트 frog embryos she was carrying with her on her return to the U.S. from France in February, Petrova바카라 게임 웹사이트s attorney said. Rather than issue a fine, Petrova바카라 게임 웹사이트s exchange visitor visa was revoked, and she was taken into custody.
Revoking Petrova바카라 게임 웹사이트s visa was 바카라 게임 웹사이트a punishment grossly disproportionate to the situation,바카라 게임 웹사이트 her attorney, Greg Romanovsky, said, calling the error on the customs form 바카라 게임 웹사이트inadvertent.바카라 게임 웹사이트
CNN did not receive a response from the Department of Homeland Security to a request for comment, but the department , 바카라 게임 웹사이트Messages found on (Petrova바카라 게임 웹사이트s) phone revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Petrova now sits in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Louisiana, ICE records show, waiting for a June 9 hearing that could end with her return to Russia, where Petrova바카라 게임 웹사이트s attorney says she would face immediate arrest over her previous outspoken opposition to Russia바카라 게임 웹사이트s invasion of Ukraine.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Her detention is not only unnecessary, but unjust,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Romanovsky said.
CNN has reviewed court filings, statements from attorneys and announcements from dozens of universities and colleges around the country and confirmed that more than 340 students, faculty and researchers have had their visas revoked this year.
Video below: 7 Harvard students, 5 recent grads have visas revoked, school says
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month the State Department, under his direction, revoked more than 300 visas, with most of those being student visas.
The earliest high-profile cases focused on those accused of supporting terror organizations, as was the case with Mahmoud Khalil바카라 게임 웹사이트s arrest following pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.
Now, an increasing number of student deportation threats involve the revocation of visas based on some minor offenses like misdemeanors, according to immigration attorneys, or sometimes no reason at all.
The targeting of foreign nationals affiliated with prestigious American universities comes amid the Trump administration바카라 게임 웹사이트s larger immigration crackdown, including claiming broad powers to declare some migrants gang members and deporting them without a hearing.
바카라 게임 웹사이트All of these tools that exist in the (immigration) statute have been used before, but they use them in a way that causes mass hysteria, chaos and panic with the hope that students won바카라 게임 웹사이트t get proper legal advice and they바카라 게임 웹사이트ll just, through attrition, leave the country,바카라 게임 웹사이트 said Jeff Joseph, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Hundreds of people associated with colleges facing possible deportation
A visa is a document that allows people to legally enter the U.S. at an airport or border crossing, and it is not unusual for student visas to be revoked for a variety of reasons, Minneapolis-based immigration attorney David Wilson told CNN. But forcing people already in the U.S. to immediately leave the country is something very different, he said, especially in the middle of an academic term.
바카라 게임 웹사이트A visa is like the key to start a car,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Wilson said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트It바카라 게임 웹사이트s quite different, though, to stop the car in the middle of the street and tell the person they have to get out.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Video below: 'I really want to finish what I came here for': Carnegie Mellon student's visa revoked one semester from graduation
That difference is at the heart of the lawsuit filed Monday by a Dartmouth graduate researcher from China. Xiaotian Liu 바카라 게임 웹사이트 a computer science student who has studied in the United States since 2016 바카라 게임 웹사이트 asked a court for a temporary restraining order to keep the government from throwing him out of the country.
Liu바카라 게임 웹사이트s F-1 student visa was revoked, something his attorneys acknowledge the State Department has the right to do, but they say that doesn바카라 게임 웹사이트t give ICE the ability to immediately force him to leave the U.S., especially since he was given no explanation for it.
바카라 게임 웹사이트He has not committed any crime or even a traffic violation,바카라 게임 웹사이트 his attorneys said in a court filing. 바카라 게임 웹사이트Nor has he shown any violence (or even participated in any protest) in the United States or elsewhere.바카라 게임 웹사이트
A federal judge in New Hampshire granted Liu바카라 게임 웹사이트s request for a temporary restraining order Wednesday. CNN reached out to DHS for comment on Liu바카라 게임 웹사이트s case.
Immigration arrests often happening without warning, attorneys say
Even visitors who have been given reasons for their deportation are often surprised by what they hear.
A graduate student at the University of Minnesota, Doğukan Günaydin, was detained by ICE on March 27 because of a prior drunk driving conviction, a senior Homeland Security official told CNN.
In a court filing, Günaydin바카라 게임 웹사이트s attorney says online records show that his visa revocation wasn바카라 게임 웹사이트t official until seven hours after he was taken into custody while on his way to class, .
Wilson, who is not involved in Günaydin바카라 게임 웹사이트s case, said driving while intoxicated is grounds to revoke a visa, but he바카라 게임 웹사이트s never seen it used to kick someone out of the country.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Saying that your (legal) status is ended because of that, there바카라 게임 웹사이트s no precedent for that,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트There바카라 게임 웹사이트s no authority for that.바카라 게임 웹사이트
While the Department of Homeland Security has publicly touted many of its efforts to deport and , the process of revoking a visa is handled by the State Department, which has been more tight-lipped.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Due to privacy considerations, and visa confidentiality, we generally will not comment on Department actions with respect to specific cases,바카라 게임 웹사이트 a spokesperson told CNN in response to questions about multiple incidents.
More than 1.5 million people were in the U.S. under student visas issued by the Department of Homeland Security in 2023, according to a , while the State Department the Exchange Visitor Program it manages 바카라 게임 웹사이트provides opportunities to around 300,000 foreign visitors from 200 countries and territories per year.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Courts become last resort for students looking for answers
In many cases, immigration attorneys have said, the Trump administration declined to provide any details on their visa revocation decisions unless forced to do so in court.
In the case of Khalil, it was only after he filed suit that the government cited his failure to state he had previously worked for the British Embassy in Beirut and was an unpaid intern with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. By the time his case got a hearing, he had already been moved more than a thousand miles away to custody, in Louisiana.
Students and families aren바카라 게임 웹사이트t the only ones being left in the dark. Several universities 바카라 게임 웹사이트 including the University of Texas at Austin, Stanford University and UCLA 바카라 게임 웹사이트 said the government never directly informed them that they had students whose visas had been revoked. In many cases, schools learned of the decision only after checking and discovering authorization had been revoked without a specific explanation.
바카라 게임 웹사이트The termination notices indicate that all terminations were due to violations of the terms of the individuals바카라 게임 웹사이트 visa programs,바카라 게임 웹사이트 UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk in a to students and faculty Sunday.
Many students have had their visas revoked with no further action taken to this point, while some have been taken into custody with the authorities바카라 게임 웹사이트 intention to deport them.
바카라 게임 웹사이트The very public actions that are being taken by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security around some of these students, where they are removing these students from their homes or from their streets, that바카라 게임 웹사이트s not usually done unless there is a security issue when a student visa is revoked,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Sarah Spreitzer with the America Council on Education . 바카라 게임 웹사이트The threat of this very quick removal is something that바카라 게임 웹사이트s new.바카라 게임 웹사이트
The lack of certainty about what is leading some scholars to lose their right to study in the U.S. is worrying the international student community.
바카라 게임 웹사이트I think I want to speak in the name of everyone here, we are feeling anxious,바카라 게임 웹사이트 said a freshman on a student visa enrolled at one of Philadelphia바카라 게임 웹사이트s renowned universities.
CNN granted the student anonymity for fear of retaliation.
바카라 게임 웹사이트We feel anxiety because we don바카라 게임 웹사이트t know what바카라 게임 웹사이트s going to happen,바카라 게임 웹사이트 the student explained in an interview with CNN between a day filled with work-study, classes and homework. 바카라 게임 웹사이트People could be targeted without being related to something, you know?바카라 게임 웹사이트