By Sam Farfan
Frozen federal grants, reversed DEI policies and sudden student deportations are a few of the damaging changes to higher education since the start of President Donald Trump administration’s earlier this year.
In the first 100 days of his second term, Trump’s most aggressive attack on our Long Beach State student body has been our international students’ abrupt visa terminations just in the past month alone.
Earlier last month, the Current reported that six CSULB international students had their visas revoked within one single week, confirmed by university President Jane Close Conoley.
This included a student who was deported to Tokyo, Japan from an airport in Honolulu after flying back from spring break.
Initially, university administrators stated there were no clear reasons for the visa revocations and “were seemingly chosen at random, with no connecting factors between them.”
In a following Current article, university officials were told one of the students had their visa terminated because of an unpaid parking ticket.
On March 4, Trump posted to his social platform Truth Social stating, “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”
Conoley said there is no evidence any of the international students were involved in campus pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have occurred since 2023. Although the university does not track who attends or participates in these demonstrations in the first place.
Additionally, university officials are no longer notified when a visa is revoked. Despite their lack of power in the matter, the university had to notify all of the students of their visa cancellations, not the federal government.
In light of the sudden terminations, a designated CSULB administrator manually logs into the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System everyday to track any student visa status changes.
As of April 30, 70 international students have had their visas terminated across the entire CSU system. Luckily, 69 of which have been reinstated.
We appreciate the university’s efforts to combat these baseless and unforeseen terminations while prioritizing our international student body during these unprecedented times.
Studying abroad is already such a daunting experience with new customs, laws and cultural differences to adapt to. No international students should have to fear whether or not they can continue their education on top of these adjustments under this new administration.
These decisions made almost unilaterally by the executive branch of the federal government set a frightening precedent that freedom of speech in the United States is conditional. That either as a legal American resident or citizen, you can only use your voice to speak out when it is something the United States president agrees with.
The right to protest, speak out and assemble are foundational aspects of this country and ones that need to be protected, not only by our respective educational institutions, but also by our elected officials.
Decisions made by the White House are transforming this country into a place where universities are attacked and those seeking better opportunities in the United States – whether it be for work or school – are punished.
