The State Department has revoked more than 6,000 student visas this year, a State Department official said Monday, as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on some international students it says have broken the law.
The visas were revoked because people had stayed after their visas expired or broken the law, the official said, noting that the “vast majority” of those legal violations were for cases of assault, driving under the influence, burglary, and “support for terrorism.”
According to the official, approximately 4,000 of the 6,000 visas were revoked because the visa holders “broke the law.”
Approximately 200 to 300 of those visas were yanked for alleged terrorism under part of the Immigration and Nationality Act that says that foreign nationals may be inadmissible to the US “due to terrorist related activities.”
The thousands of revocations, first reported by Fox News, come as the Trump administration has undertaken aggressive actions towards universities and related to student visas.
Administration officials have particularly targeted international students active in protests against the war in Gaza, accusing those students of antisemitism and of supporting terrorism.
In one high profile case, Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk’s visa was canceled, and she was seized by masked federal agents in March and put into ICE detention. A judge ordered her release in May.
In June, the State Department told its embassies and consulates it must vet student visa applicants for “hostile attitudes towards our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.” Applicants will be asked to set their social media profiles to public as part of the vetting, and a diplomatic cable noted that “limited access to, or visibility of, online presence could be construed as an effort to evade or hide certain activity.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vigorously defended the Trump administration’s policies on student visa revocation.
“There is no constitutional right to a student visa. A student visa is something we decide to give you,” he said in an interview with EWTN in early August. “Visas of every kind are denied every day all over the world. As I speak to you now, someone’s visa application to the US is being denied. So, if I would have denied you a visa had I known something about you, and I find out afterwards that I gave you a visa and I found this out about you, why wouldn’t I be able to revoke your visa?”
According to the State Department, roughly 400,000 student visas, otherwise known as F1 visas, were issued in fiscal year 2024.
Far fewer are expected to be issued this calendar year after new appointments were temporarily suspended, and the new vetting requirements were put in place.
An analysis by NAFSA: Association of International Educators and JB International forecast a potential 30–40 percent decline in new international student enrollment, contributing to a 15% drop in overall enrollment this fall.
“Such an outcome would deprive local economies of $7 billion in spending and more than 60,000 jobs,” NAFSA said in late July.
“Without significant recovery in visa issuance in July and August, up to 150,000 fewer students may arrive this fall,” it said.
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