Eighteen students at Florida International University had their F-1 visa statuses abruptly revoked by the Trump administration, the Miami New Times reported on Friday.
FIU spokesperson Madeline Baró confirmed to the Times that the federal government revoked the visas between March 25 and April 10. She said student privacy laws did not allow her to discuss the matter.
Colleges around the country are reporting some of their international students' visas are being revoked unexpectedly, expressing alarm over what appears to be a new level of government scrutiny.
Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but college leaders say the government has been quietly terminating students' legal residency status with little notice to students or schools. That marks a shift from past practice and leaves students vulnerable to detention and deportation.
The list of colleges that have discovered students have had their legal status terminated includes Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA and Ohio State University.
As of April 10, the federal government has stripped more than 600 students of their visas across the country.
The Independent Florida Alligator reported on Thursday that four students at the University of Florida were among them.
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The Trump administration has targeted students who had been involved with pro-Palestinian activism or speech, with a few high-profile detentions of students including Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was a leader of protests at Columbia University.
But more schools are seeing visas stripped from students with no known connection to protests. In some cases, past infractions such as traffic violations have been cited. Some colleges say the reasons remain unclear to them — and they are seeking answers.
“What you’re seeing happening with international students is really a piece of the much greater scrutiny that the Trump administration is bringing to bear on immigrants of all different categories,” said Michelle Mittelstadt, director of public affairs at the Migration Policy Institute.
Many college officials and students have only found out about the changes when they have checked a federal database and seen changes to an individual’s immigration status.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
