At FIU, foreign students are afraid to speak up. That’s exactly what Trump wants | Opinion

American universities have a long tradition of welcoming international students, but now there’s a growing fear among them that saying the wrong thing will land them in President Donald Trump’s cross-hairs.

As the Herald has reported, the Trump administration revoked the F-1 student visa status of 18 students at Florida International University as of April 10. It’s unclear why.

Nationwide, more than 1,000 students — including eight at the University of Florida — have had their legal status changed by the State Department, according to data tallied by Inside HigherEd. In some cases, students had participated in pro-Palestinian protests or defended pro-Palestinian causes.

These are still small figures compared to the 1.5 million international students in the U.S. — and it’s unknown how many of those visas were revoked for legitimate reasons. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said students came to America “not just to study but to participate in movements that vandalize universities, harass students, take over buildings and cause chaos.”

Visa revocations — and the recent decision by the FIU police department to aid in immigration law enforcement — send a strong message that foreign students should keep quiet or they may risk deportation.

Protesting or speaking up isn’t a crime when it doesn’t escalate into violence, threats or allegiance to a foreign terrorist organization, but the Trump administration has hinted that it is targeting people based on their opinions.

In a now-deleted social media post that it later said was a mistake, Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote that its job is to stop ideas that have crossed the border “illegally” even though ideas under the First Amendment cannot be banned. The Department of Homeland Security has said it would watch the social media activity of foreign students and immigrants applying for permanent status to screen for alleged antisemitic views — which is a good thing — but that could easily evolve into people being denied entry simply because they disagree with Trump’s policies or because they support Palestinians.

At FIU, campus organizations have advised international students to stop engaging in activism, some of whom have scrubbed their social media and said they won’t speak up in class anymore, the Herald reported. The perception is that whatever the Trump administration can label “anti-American” can land foreigners who otherwise have legal status in trouble.

Canceling visas goes beyond Trump’s promise to crack down on southern border crossings or those here illegally. It looks like a widespread effort to purge America of people the government doesn’t like and to paint foreigners as threats to the U.S.

Trump has publicly mused about deporting U.S. citizens to prisons in El Salvador and has had discussions in the White House about stripping American citizenship from naturalized citizens, Rolling Stone reported. White House aide Stephen Miller wrote on X in 2023 that a de-naturalization office created during Trump’s first term would be “turbocharged” in 2025. Given the administration’s disregard for due process for deported migrants so far, is there any guarantee that naturalized citizens would have recourse?

Meanwhile, FIU police officers will soon receive training as part of a program, joined by a number of other universities, that allows them to stop, question and in some cases detain people who they suspect are in the country illegally.

FIU is known for its large Hispanic student body and almost 600 students are Dreamers who have protections from deportation because they came to the country as children, the Herald reported. School campuses should be a safe haven for those students, but now they could become the target of their own campus police if they lose their protected status. This is not the role of a campus police force that should focus on student, faculty and staff safety.

There are some who will say revoking visas of students is a good thing because it creates more space for American students. That may be a valid point, but the bigger consideration is the chilling effect these actions create on campuses.

Campus protests in other states over Israel’s response to the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks turned into lawlessness and brewing grounds for antisemitism, but there’s a clear danger that these horrific incidents could be used to fulfill Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.

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This story was originally published April 15, 2025 at 12:44 PM.