A spokesperson confirmed Tuesday afternoon that almost a dozen international students at Texas A&M have had their legal status in the U.S. revoked. The terminations come amid a national crackdown by the Trump administration on students connected to campus activism, though it remains unclear whether those impacted at A&M were affiliated with advocacy.
“Texas A&M has had nine students with Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records terminated by the U.S. government as of Monday morning,” a university spokesperson said in a statement to The Battalion. “The university’s International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) team has been in contact with the affected students, and ISSS has been in communication with the international student and scholar community on campus to provide appropriate information and support. Texas A&M follows all federal and state laws, while ensuring a campus culture that supports every Aggie every day.”
The statement listed the number known as of Monday morning, but in an email sent to faculty Tuesday afternoon, ISSS’ director Samantha Clement said the number has since increased to 11, 10 from College Station and one from Galveston. Of the 11, Clement wrote that 10 were graduate students and one had since left the U.S. In a subsequent statement Tuesday night, a spokesperson said the number had increased to 15 students.
“Specifically, they are changing their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) record from Active to Terminated, which essentially means they no longer have legal status in the U.S.,” Clement wrote in the email, which was obtained and verified by The Battalion. “This is arguably a more direct impact on students’ lives than a visa revocation.”
Students whose SEVIS status is terminated must either leave the U.S. or file a reinstatement application. If they reapply, they can stay enrolled at the university as it processes.
Clement said impacted students and schools are receiving no communications from the government, so ISSS is checking SEVIS statuses multiple times a day to identify terminated students. She added that the only reason provided by the government is that the students were “identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked.” The Associated Press reported last Friday that after three A&M students had their visas terminated, university officials who looked into the cases found that they “had long-resolved offenses on their records, including one with a speeding ticket.”
“This is an unprecedented situation being faced by nearly all U.S. institutions at the same time, so we are essentially figuring it out as we go along,” she wrote.
Clement did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Universities across the nation, including Stanford, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, are reporting similar terminations, and an analysis from The New York Times found that the Trump administration has revoked nearly 300 visas in recent weeks.
“It might be more than 300 at this point,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a press conference late last month. “We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa. At some point, I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”
According to the Office of Academic & Business Performance Analytics, there were 6,146 international students enrolled at A&M in fall 2024, almost 8% of the total student population. ICE and the Department of State did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
