From ambush arrests to self-reliance: How Donald Trump is breaking on foreign students. world News
As the sun started decreasing on Tuesday evening in Somarville, Massachusetts, 30-year-old Massachusetts Rumusa ozaturk Was on his way to connect with friends for Iftar, ready to break his Ramadan fast. But Turkish doctoral students never made Tufts University and Fulbright Scholar. Just steps from his apartment near the campus, he was physically restrained and detained by immigration officers, according to his lawyer Mahsa Khanbai. His alleged crime? Not to exceed visa or commit crime-but writing an op-ed. Within days, his visa was canceled, his educational future disintegrated. And the case of Ojturk, while the tremors are far from isolated. It marks a thread in a broad, rapidly growing crack by President Donald TusrapAdministration -one is one that is turning international students into political collateral in a comprehensive campaign to remake the American university system.
The attempt that began as an attempt to prevent antisemitism on the campus and restore “order” became converted into a broad attack on speech, scholarships and immigration status. Weapon of choice: Visa cancellation and surveillance. Goals: Foreign students, especially dare to protest or post those who are considered important from American colleagues or policy even from far away.
This is not just policy enforcement – this is ideological enforcement. And this is changing the complexes of America in ways that will echo beyond the quad.
Free speech: chilling effect
The United States once welcomed international students with a promise of educational freedom. Today, they are learning hard that freedom is conditional – and it can be canceled.
Since January, hundreds of foreign students have been forced to leave the country after receiving emails from the State Department. Their visas were canceled without warning. The Region? Participation in protests, writing pieces of opinion, or sharing content on social media.
A columbia student received a dispute notice after liking memes. Others were marked to participate in rallies or participate in statements challenging American policy in Gaza. Many have now completely removed their online profiles, instead of marching on the streets, in the dom room.
Some, such as Mahmud Khalil – a Palestinian graduate student and legal permanent resident – have been arrested outright. His crime? Helping to organize protests. He keeps a green card and marries an American citizen, yet he is under the detention of snow.
The effect is clear: fear. Protests have become a deported crime. Foreign students, once the lively voice in the campus debate, is getting silent. And the administrators are helping to keep them silently, facing the hazards of funding cuts.
Monitoring: “Catch and cancel”
US State Secretary Marco Rubio, Paramaribo, Suriname, Thursday, Johann arrives at Adolf Pengel International Airport on 27 March 2025.
There is a new weapon behind this Pej: AI monitoring.
By State Secretary Marco Rubio, the “Catch and Rivok” initiative used artificial intelligence to scan the social media accounts of international students, which by discovering anything, which supports the sympathy to Hamas, the critical, or campus protests of Israel. If the flag is flagged, the student’s visa automatically canceled.
The system does not monitor only new applicants – it examines the current students. An Instagram Story of two years ago? A retweet from a classmate? Fair game. The State Department has instructed the consular officers to screenshots any “derogatory” content and attach the student to the immune file. No reference. No appeal.
More than 300 students have already lost their visas under this system. They are asked for “self-disport” through a mobile app and reports to an American consulate that they can cancel their visa stamps physically. Those who do not comply with detention or reunion of future.
Once the land of free expression is now a digital mine area. And for foreign students, a meme can mean exile.
Educational disintegration: University under siege
The crack is not limited to students. The entire universities are being pressurized to bend the knee.
Columbia University was the first high-profile casualties. In March, the federal government freezed $ 400 million in grants and contracts, accusing the school of failing to address antisimitism and allowing “radical activity”. The message was unclear: compliance, or collapse.
Columbia turned.
The university agreed to ban face masks on protests, give strength of campus security arrests, implement strict discipline policies and to submit its Middle Eastern Studies Department under federal supervision. In short: Autonomy trades for survival.
The results were immediate. Medical research was stopped. Labs were closed. Study on a stop at uterine fibroids, AI-Assisted Hospital equipment, and public health initiative. Professors warned that the university’s soul – its freedom – piece was being sold from the piece.
Other universities paid attention. Harvard, Stanford and California University of California are now hiring lobists with Republican relations. Davidson College brought federal advisors for the first time in its history. Johns Hopkins shut down more than 2,000 employees following the dangers of federal funding.
Meanwhile, Capital Hill is preparing to make the tax codes weapons. Vice President JD Vance has proposed to increase the settlement tax by 1.4% decorating by 35% for hosting disruptive protests. Senator Tom cotton To fund “patriotic education”, one -time windfall tax on elite schools wants tax. Message: Pay the toe to the line, or price.
Immigration Law: Armed ambiguity
What makes this rift uniquely effective is its legal fog. Students are critical of visa design, and the administration is exploiting every ambiguity.
Most F-1 and J-1 visa holders are recruited for “period of status” instead of a certain period. This meant that they could live as long as they maintain full -time enrollment. Now, a single sevis record ended automatically after the expiration -viscosication – a student can immerse it in an illegal appearance. Stay 180 days? Facing a three -year rebirth ban. Stay 365? He is a decade. Rules, once soft -edged, have become rigid. And students are often unaware that they are also out of the situation until they receive the dreaded email, they do not say to leave them immediately.
Some try to fight back. An Indian postdock in Louisiana is challenging its custody. ICE, a Palestinian graduate student in Cornell, is being asked to report. But these are difficult battles – without time, resources or certainty. Even green card holders are not safe. Mahmud Khalil And another Colombia student, Yonso ChungBoth legal permanent residents, rarely being targeted under the clause used, allows exile if one is considered a “threat to US foreign policy”. His lawyers say that this is a constitutional outrage: political speech is considered as a national security risk.
And this is the new paradigm: express wrong opinions, and suddenly, your immigration status is a weapon that the government can change against you.
The Big Picture: Academia Under Authorian Pressure
This is not just an immigration story. This is a story about American higher education under siege. University has always been dirty, hoarse spaces – laboratory for dissatisfaction, debate and idealism. That disturbance is now seen as an obligation. The order must be restored. The dollar should be protected. The ideologies should be polished. The alleged antisementism that began as a crack has expanded to a complete-spectrum culture war. DEI programs are being destroyed. Gender study departments are being investigated. Professor is resigning. International students are self-sufficient. And the presidents of the university are with rare exceptions, remain silent.
Because the cost of disregard is existing. Federal funding, and complete research ecosystems lose the collapse. Self -surrender autonomy, and perhaps you survive. It is not just about compliance. It is about control. Control of the course. Control of faculty. Who is in the premises and who does not. The Trump administration has found its leverage point – and it is using it.
What are the remains of the university?
In his earlier presidential presidency, Trump threatened to cancel funds from “Woque” universities. In his second term, he is doing this with cruel efficiency.
The result is a new reality: foreign students look at their words. The universities brid down their principles. The monitoring replaces the debate. And dissatisfaction becomes a deported task. What is at stake is not just immigration policy. This is the integrity of the American University – its commitment to truth, inquiry and freedom. That foundation is now moving. The question is whether anyone will rebuild it, or we are looking at the quiet construction of a new kind of campus- quit, obedient and fear?
