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Crackdown on student visas reaches El Paso region. What comes next? [1]
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Date: 2025-04-10
The national wave of revoked visas for international students in higher education hit the borderland this week as the federal government has terminated the legal status of at least 18 students in the region.
The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso Community College and New Mexico State University in Las Cruces reported 10, two and six students, respectively, had their visas revoked. Texas Tech Health El Paso said they have no known students whose visas were revoked.
UTEP became aware of the visa situation through status changes in the Department of Homeland Security’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program database, the university said in a statement Wednesday.
Additionally, the university said that it had not received any official notification from DHS about these visa terminations. A revoked visa means that the students are supposed to leave the country immediately. It is unclear if the students with terminated visas can still be enrolled and what recourse they would have as finals week starts May 12 for UTEP and EPCC.
“We are looking at each case individually and we will provide appropriate assistance to students as appropriate,” the UTEP statement read.
Under President Donald Trump’s executive orders, immigration agencies are cracking down on what DHS calls antisemitic activity among immigrants, including foreign students. DHS in a statement Wednesday said it would begin screening immigrants’ social media activity; while Trump’s executive orders cite efforts to combat “campus anti-semitism” such as pro-Palestine protests on college campuses.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that some colleges will offer legal and emotional support to their students and at least one institution, Duke University, a private institution in North Carolina, has said that it will help their students complete their degrees abroad.
“Our international community is important to EPCC and we remain committed to supporting all students, faculty and staff,” said Keri Moe, the college’s associate vice president of external relations, communications and development.
The issues of the immediacy of deportation or self-deportation are just some of the issues that students need to consider. They also must decide if they will return home during the upcoming summer break, especially if their home countries are part of the government’s proposed travel ban list.
In an April 4 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, American Council on Education President Ted Mitchell sought clarity about the student visa terminations for the students and the colleges and universities to include how the students could appeal the decision or verify that the right peoples’ visas were revoked.
According to Inside Higher Ed, the State Department has changed the legal status of almost 450 international students from approximately 100 colleges and universities. There are more than 1 million international students studying in America.
The ACE letter, which was supported by 16 higher education groups, reminded officials that international students take on more than 375,000 domestic jobs and have an estimated economic impact of $43.8 billion. That is in addition to what they provide in “intellectual vibrancy” in the classroom.
While supportive of the overall goal of national security, ACE and the other groups reached out to DHS and the State Department to lessen the uncertainty involved in the visa terminations so higher education institutions can reassure international students and scholars to enroll at their campuses. An ACE official said there has been no response yet.
What it means for those who have a terminated record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, is that they lose all on- and off-campus employment authorization, according to the DHS Study in the States website.
Additionally, the students cannot re-enter the United States on the terminated SEVIS record, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents may investigate to confirm the students’ departure.
The U.S. government can revoke a visa for a number of reasons. CNN reported Wednesday that the threat of additional student deportations often are tied to relatively minor offenses such as years-old misdemeanors, according to immigration attorneys, or sometimes no reason at all. There may be a grace period depending on the reason for the visa termination.
Some colleges and universities have reported that the reasons some of their students have lost their F-1 or J-1 visas could be due to their activism and participation in protests against the war in Gaza, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Most international college students have the F-1 visa, which allows people to enter the country as full-time students at accredited colleges to pursue a degree, diploma or certificate. M-1 visas are for students who attend vocational or nonacademic institutions. The J-1 is for people traveling in the United States as part of an exchange program.
Texas colleges and universities enrolled 89,546 international students during the 2023-24 academic year, according to opendoors, a comprehensive online resource about international students.
The website states that most of the students came from India, China, Mexico, Nepal and Vietnam. Two hundred of the students were Fulbright Scholars. Almost 12,000 enrolled at the University of North Texas in Denton. About 10,500 attended UT Dallas followed by smaller numbers at UT Arlington, Texas A&M and UT Austin.
UTEP enrolled 1,337 international students, including 520 from countries other than Mexico, or about 5.5% of the student population in fall 2023, according to UTEP’s Center for Institutional Evaluation, Research and Planning.
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