President Donald Trump administration’s mass deportation vow has resulted in 4,000 international students’ visas being revoked in its first 100 days of power, according to a New York Post report.
The new numbers come in as dozens of US-focussed reports surrounding student visa revocations, detentions, potential deportations continue to shock the world. These developments have even significantly filled tourists with fear about travelling to the US as the Customs and Border Protection officials have detained one too many visitors after their arrival at American airports.
While Democrats, and even some Republicans, urge the Trump administration to follow due process in such cases, ensuring transparency, top officials behind Donald Trump have adopted a “zero tolerance” against those who participated in campus-led pro-Palestinian protests.
“No one’s entitled to a student visa,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a cabinet meeting. “If you come to this country as a student, we expect you to go to class and study and get a degree. If you come here to vandalise a library, take over a campus, and do all kinds of crazy things, we’re going to get rid of these people.”
State Department official: Majority of student visa revocations tied to criminal records
Some international students’ lawyers have even claimed that they have dragged into turmoil as they now face deportation despite no previous criminal convictions. On the contrary, a senior State Department source told the Post that 90% of the students troubled with student visa revocation have committed crimes like arson, wildlife and human trafficking, domestic abuse, DUI, robbery and child endangerment. More than 500 of these students reportedly have assault raps.
“They came and they were breaking the law with no consequences,” the source said. “We set up a special action team to handle this.” After having worked with the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department compared the database information with existing law enforcement records.
Thereafter, they purportedly considered only “serious” cases amid Trump’s immigration crackdown. The source insisted that they didn’t revoke visas in cases like littering or where the individual’s charges were dropped “because it should be a serious matter.”
The State Department official also noted that other visa categories going beyond students may also be looked at in the future.
Earlier this year, Trump even took birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court despite other courts blocking his attempts to nullify the case of automatic citizenship.