Last Updated on by Serena Zehlius
Fifty-three more foreign students in Texas have had their legal status changed in a wave of removals from a federal database that have swept across the state and the nation.
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Nineteen students from the University of Texas at Dallas and 27 students from the University of North Texas were removed from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS database, according to university officials. Three students at Texas Tech University and four at Texas Women’s University also had their visas revoked. The universities did not identify the students.
Visa revocations prevent re-entering the U.S. but do not immediately end an individual’s status, but SEVIS removals do, limiting students’ options and causing a much more immediate effect. Robert Hoffman, an immigration lawyer with offices in Houston and Bryan, said SEVIS removal also can affect employment eligibility and the status of dependents like spouses and children, whose ability to stay in the U.S. depends on the primary status holder.
“Unfortunately, these kinds of terminations kind of short-circuit due process by not allowing the student the opportunity to hear the specifics of their charges or defend themselves,” Hoffman said.
Neither university nor government officials have made it clear how students are being chosen for removal. However, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement Wednesday saying it would begin screening international students’ social media for “antisemitic” content. DHS’ statement cited two executive orders from President Donald Trump, described by the White House as aiming to crack down on “the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and in our streets,” referencing pro-Palestine protests on college campuses. Several Texas universities, including UNT and UTD, were sites of similar protests.
During a Faculty Senate meeting at UNT on Wednesday, Faculty Senate Vice Chair William Joyner announced he had heard from the provost about the 16 students whose statuses were removed from SEVIS. A university spokesperson later confirmed to the Tribune that number had risen to 27. No other information was provided, Joyner said in a statement to the Tribune.
“We know nothing other than this, and I am not willing to speculate,” Joyner said.
A spokesperson with UTD verified that 19 of their students had their immigration status terminated, and said they were working through the situation with the affected students.
“This is a fluid situation, and we are communicating with affected students about the changes in their status as soon as possible,” a statement from the university read.
Students who are removed from SEVIS have only a few options for recourse, said Phillip Rodriguez, another Bryan-based immigration lawyer. Students can choose to leave, or apply to reinstate their status.
The federal database changes in Texas were first noted Tuesday, when 15 international students at Texas A&M were removed from SEVIS. Between UNT, UTD, Texas A&M,Texas Tech and TWU, the total number of students who have either been removed from SEVIS or had their visas revoked is now at 68. A spokesperson with Texas Tech said the revocations were an “evolving situation.”
Hoffman said choosing to remove students from SEVIS rather than revoking visas creates a more difficult appeal process.
“I think they’re proactively making it so that they basically can’t continue studies, or making it extremely difficult to continue their studies here in the United States without some sort of intervention,” Hoffman said.
UNT has one of the highest international enrollments in the U.S., with over 8,000 international students, most of whom are graduate-level, according to university data. Nineteen of the 27 students at UNT who had their SEVIS records removed were graduate students, according to a university spokesperson. UTD has over 4,500 international students, according to the university website.
Disclosure: Texas Tech University, University of Texas at Dallas and University of North Texas have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism.
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