Hundreds of international students have been abruptly kicked out of the United States under the Trump administration’s latest visa crackdown.
The move, described by experts as unlike anything seen before, has left students scrambling to pack up and leave within a week.
Some students got no advance notice just surprise texts or emails. Others found out through the Federal Student Exchange and Visitor Information System.
Campuses in California, Ohio, Florida, and Colorado have all confirmed cases. Many schools refused to release full details, citing student privacy rules.
Immigration attorney Len Saunders, stunned by the numbers, said: “I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’ve never seen 300 students lose their visas. It’s all political.”
Some of the visa cancellations were reportedly triggered by minor infractions like traffic violations or roommate issues. Others may be linked to students attending pro-Palestinian protests.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio took full credit for the action, saying: “Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas.”
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He claimed over 300 students were targeted for their activism.
The affected students haven’t been arrested, but they have been ordered to leave the U.S. within seven days.
The backlash has already begun. Protests erupted at Tufts University and the University of Arizona, where Turkish student Rumeysa Öztürk was detained even though her visa was valid.
Colorado State University said six of its students were affected. The University of Massachusetts-Amherst confirmed five cases.
The scope of the purge is raising alarms across campuses and sparking questions about what qualifies as a deportable offense in this new era.