Foreign Student Crackdown Reportedly Skyrockets As Trump Admin Pulls More Than 1,100 Visas

The Trump administration has revoked more than 1,100 foreign student visas since it launched its mission against alleged terrorist sympathizers and antisemitism, according to a report.

A database from Inside Higher Ed indicates a sudden and dramatic rise in orders stripping foreigners of the ability to legally study in the U.S., weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio put the number at around 300. Many of the students lost their visas over their alleged anti-Israel or pro-terrorist advocacy and previous criminal records, the outlet said, citing mostly public news reports and university statements.

Ashley Mowreader, who analyzed the data and wrote the report, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “it’s very unclear what is driving these revocations” because “the government has provided little to no explanation.”

“What we’ve heard from campus officials is that some of the students affected weren’t involved in campus protests,” Mowreader said. Antisemitism, Israel-related issues or alleged support for terrorism could be the basis “for some” of the revocations, she told the DCNF.

The school with the largest reported number in the database is Northwest Missouri State University at 43 visa revocations, the report shows. Five of those visa holders were current students and the rest were in a federal post-graduation employment program, FOX4KC reported. The visa holders were “being advised” by immigration authorities “that they depart the U.S. immediately to avoid accruing unlawful presence,” the university said Friday.

“Visiting America is not an entitlement,” Rubio said on Saturday. “It is a privilege extended to those who respect our laws and values. And, as Secretary of State, I will never forget that.”

While Democrats have widely criticized the move to deport several foreign students involved in campus protests, federal officials scored a victory Friday when a judge ruled that it could deport Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead the pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in 2024 that cost the school hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. The crackdown has created anxiety on college campuses, with some anti-Israel students scrambling to get their statements erased from newspaper articles.

No data is available yet on the exact number of faculty and students facing removal under Trump. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in March deported a Lebanese professor who attended a Hezbollah terrorist leader’s funeral and allegedly possessed “sympathetic” materials about the Islamist group.

The campus crackdown fits within Trump’s larger deportation efforts that have removed more than 100,000 people from the country. The administration has focused especially on targeting migrants it deems the most dangerous, such as suspected gang members, terrorists or people with violent criminal convictions.

The State Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the Daily Caller News Foundation.