The State Department has revoked the visa of a graduate student at the University of Iowa, according to an email sent to the university’s international students and scholars on Thursday. The Trump administration’s ongoing and unprecedented mass revocation of student visas has resulted in more than 700 students around the country being stripped of their legal status in the last few weeks, Inside Higher Ed reports.
The revocation cited in Thursday’s email from UI International Programs Dean and Associate Provost Russell Ganim is the first one reported in Iowa.
“On April 4, the university learned the U.S. State Department had canceled the visa of a University of Iowa graduate student,” Gamin said in the email. “The university did not initiate the action and was not aware of any violation. UI’s International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) immediately reached out to the student, offered to meet, and outlined next steps.”
No information was provided in the email about the identity of the student or the student’s current situation.
Almost all the student visa revocations reported so far appear to be in response to students participating in protests or publicly expressing views the Trump administration disapproves of.
“We do it every day,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said regarding revoking student visas during a news conference on March 27. “Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.”
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio told reporters.
The “to write an op-ed” in Rubio’s reply is central to the Trump administration’s actions against student visa holders.
Rubio made his comments two days after Rümeysa Öztürk, a graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, was seized by six men wearing masks while she was walking down a street near her apartment.
“They were all wearing civilian clothes,” Öztürk said in a written declaration filed in federal court this week “I thought this was a strange situation and was sure they were going to kill me.”
The six men were ICE agents, not in uniform and not displaying any ID. They physically restrained Öztürk, a 30-year-old Turkish national working on a Ph.D. in psychology, and took her into custody. No criminal charges are pending against her, and no criminal conduct by her has been alleged. The justification offered, so far, for her detention is that her student visa had been canceled. Neither Öztürk nor Tufts had been informed of the visa cancellation before she was grabbed off the street. She is, by all accounts, a model student and came to the United States to study as a Fulbright Scholar. Öztürk was walking alone and on her way to meet friends at an Iftar dinner as part of their observance of Ramadan when she was surrounded by the ICE agents.
The apparent reason for Öztürk’s visa cancellation and subsequent detention is that she was one of four co-authors of an op-ed published by the Tufts newspaper stating the university should act on resolutions passed by the Tufts Community Union Senate that called for it to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” divest from companies with ties to Israel and apologize for certain remarks made by the university’s president.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security — the department ICE is part of — Sec. Rubio has “determined” that Öztürk’s co-writing an op-ed in a student newspaper might have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”
That claim may sound ridiculous, but the spokesperson was quoting the language of a seldom used — and until now, little noticed — provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, passed at the height of the McCarthy-era Red Scare. The provision gives the Secretary of State the power to order the deportation of a person legally in the United States if the secretary makes the determination the person’s presence in the country undermines U.S. foreign policy.
Öztürk was sent to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, where she remains in custody.
In her court filing, Öztürk described the conditions under which she is being held.
“We are in a cell that has a sign stating capacity for 14 but there are 24 of us in this small space,” she wrote. “None of us are able to sleep through the night. They come into the cell often and walk around triggering the fluorescent lights. They shout in the cell to wake up those who work in the kitchen around 3:30 am each day.”
Öztürk is asthmatic. She and her attorneys say the conditions in Louisiana are exacerbating her condition and the facility is not providing proper medical care.
In his email on Thursday, Dean Ganim told UI’s international students and scholars, “In the event ISSS learns of a change in your status, we will reach out immediately to share guidance and outline next steps.” He added, “It is important to understand that the university is not authorized to offer personal legal advice.”
Ganim suggested contacting a private attorney should the need for legal representation arise. He also recommended contacting the Iowa State Bar Association or the Legal Clinic at the University of Iowa College of Law for assistance.
At the close of his email, Ganim said, “International students and scholars are valued members of the Iowa community.”
COGS, the union for graduate student workers at UI, said it stands in solidarity with the unnamed student in a statement on Friday morning about the visa revocation.
“This is a scary time,” the statement said. “We want to assure our members that COGS will do whatever we can, putting our bodies on the line, in order to protect each other. We urge other individuals and organizations to take a similar stance.”
The union called on the university and the UI community to do what they can to support and defend international students and scholars, and encouraged graduate student workers to “reach out to other COGS members to create plans to keep themselves and one another safe.”
According to data compiled by Inside Higher Ed, more than 140 colleges and universities have reported students have had their visas revoked during the 76 days the Trump administration has been in power.
“Most college officials say they’re unsure of why foreign-born students had their legal residency status terminated or have yet to receive formal notification of the changes,” the education news site said. “A majority have yet to receive any communications from immigration authorities.”
