Since the US federal government has expanded the reasons for which international students can lose their legal status, many of those students are reconsidering their Summer plans. Even trips within the US are being cancelled out of fear for repercussions.
From the start, the Trump administration has cracked down on screening standards and procedures for entry into the US, leaving the lives of 1.12 million international students in the US impacted. In March 2025, multiple institutions of higher education were already urging their international students not to leave the US. Now, they are reiterating those statements as the federal government has expanded the reasons for which international students can be stripped of their legal status in the US at the end of April.
The expansion comes after many of the students having lost their legal status in the US filed challenges in federal courts throughout the country. A multitude of foreign students – at least 1,220 students at 187 institutions had their visas revoked or legal status terminated since late March – learned their records were removed by a database maintained by ICE, some because of minor traffic infractions, others without apparent reason at all. In many cases, judges issued preliminary rulings, saying the government had acted without due process.
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In order to avoid such rulings, a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement document now states that valid reasons for losing one’s legal status now include the revocation of the visa used by a student to enter the US – previously, in such a case a student was generally allowed to stay in the US to finish school. If they left the country, they weren’t allow to reenter, however. Still according to the new guidelines, a students’ status can be revoked if their names appear in a criminal or fingerprint database. And this can be done in a way that was not permitted in the past according to Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-based immigration attorney.
“The Department of State adjudicates F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas overseas for students and exchange visitors. A student or exchange visitor issued a visa uses that visa to travel to a United States port of entry, airport, or land border crossing, and request admission from US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The CBP officer determines eligibility to enter the United States. Once admitted into the United States, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), administered by the Department of Homeland Security, tracks and monitors schools, exchange visitor programmes, and F, M, and J nonimmigrants while they visit the United States and participate in the US education system,” a US State Department spokesperson explained the difference between student visas and legal status to Business Standard.
🚨Update: Visas have been revoked from more than 3 dozen California university students and alumni. pic.twitter.com/Qx1P62Ran9
— US Homeland Security News (@defense_civil25) April 7, 2025
What to do when you need to travel?
As it remains impossible to predict which students will be stripped of their legal status in the US, many scholar institutions are urging their students to cancel their Summer plans. University of California, Berkeley, for example warned its students for “strict vetting and enforcement” by immigration and a Michigan college employee told the Associated Press how more and more international students are inquiring about the visa process, often leaving him unable to provide them with answers.
International students in the US who are unable to postpone their travel plans are advised to bring their immigration documents, school transcripts and court documents in case they were charged with a crime that was than dismissed when reentering the country. However, it seems to be impossible to foretell what immigration officers will decide upon arrival in the US.
