Trump Administration initiates new wave of international student stay revocations: "No one has a right to a visa"

The Administration of President Donald Trump has launched a new series of revocations of visas targeting international students studying at U.S. universities.

This move, which affects renowned institutions across the country, has generated uncertainty among academic communities and affected students, who in many cases learned of the loss of their immigration status through routine record reviews.

Universities such as Harvard, Michigan, Stanford, UCLA, and Ohio State, among others, reported over the weekend that several of their international students had had their visas revoked.

At Harvard, for example, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) canceled the visas of three graduate students and two recent graduates, as reported by The Harvard Crimson. Most of the affected institutions discovered these revocations without prior communication from DHS, which has added confusion to the situation.

"We are not aware of the details of the revocations or the reasons for them, but we understand that comparable numbers of students and scholars in institutions across the country have experienced similar status changes in roughly the same timeframe," the Harvard International Office noted in an email to its students, as reported by Fox News.

At the University of Michigan, four students lost their visas Friday, and at least one of them has already left the country, according to the Detroit Free Press. Although the exact reason for these measures has not been specified, statements by Secretary of State Marco Rubio offer some clues as to the Administration's position.

No one is entitled to a visa

On March 28, Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the issue in a public statement in front of the State Department press corps: student visas are being revoked "every day." In addition, he made reference to protests and activities on college campuses, suggesting that these could be related to the immigration decisions.

“We have seen on campuses across the country where students literally cannot go to school; you cannot—buildings are being taken over, activities are going on—this is clearly an organized movement,” Rubio said. "And if you are in this country on a student visa and are a participant in those movements, we have a right to deny your visa. I think it would make sense to deny your visa.”

Rubio underscored his position by adding, “We’re going to err on the side of caution. We are not going to be importing activists into the United States."

And he noted, (...) No one has a right to a visa. These are things that we decide. We deny visas every day for all kinds of reasons all over the world. We deny visas because we think people might overstay. We deny visas because the country they come from are people that historically overstay. We deny visas every day, and we can revoke visas. If you have the power to deny, you have the power to revoke.”

However, so far, it has not been confirmed whether the recent revocations are specifically linked to anti-Israel activities or other forms of activism on the part of the affected students.

These immigration measures reinforce a clear message from the Republican administration: "no one has a right to a visa." As the issue evolves, universities and student communities await more information to understand the scope and implications of these decisions.