As President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies enable mass arrests by federal authorities around the country, public concern has emerged over a trend in the targeting of students within these operations. 

Around 300 international student activists who participated in the national wave of “pro-Palestine” protests and encampments last year have had their visas revoked since early March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed last month.

“If they’re taking activities that are counter to our national interest, to our foreign policy, we’ll revoke the visa,” Rubio said.

The first such arrest was that of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate, on March 8. Khalil, one of the school’s most prominent activists involved in the protests on Columbia’s campus last year, was detained and then transferred to a facility in Louisiana, which is under the jurisdiction of one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country.

His legal team has been successful in transferring his challenge to his detention back to New Jersey, though he remains in Louisiana, where a judge ruled Friday that he can be deported under a federal statute from the 1950s.

Khalil, who has a green card, is a U.S. permanent resident and is married to a U.S. citizen, wrote an op-ed in Columbia’s student newspaper on April 4, calling on students and faculty to speak up. His legal team has said that if he were ordered deported, they would appeal that decision. 

“History will redeem us, while those who were content to wait on the sidelines will be forever remembered for their silence,” Khalil said.

A surveillance video of another student, Rümeysa Öztürk of Tufts University, went viral after she was surrounded, arrested and physically restrained by plain-clothed immigration authorities. She was also transferred to Louisiana, though a judge ordered her moved back to Massachusetts last Friday.

Öztürk co-wrote an op-ed in the university’s student newspaper criticizing Tufts’ response to calls for divestment. The university made a declaration in support of Öztürk after her arrest, describing her as a “valued member of the community, dedicated to her academic pursuits and committed to her colleagues.” 

It also asked that she “receive the due process rights to which she is entitled.” 

After being questioned about freedom of speech concerns last month, Secretary Rubio said that international students are “here to go to class. They’re not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine our universities. I think it’s lunacy to continue to allow that.” 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not specify what alleged activities, “in support of Hamas,” Öztürk participated in. Though Rubio suggested, without providing evidence, that she participated in pro-Palestine student protests.

The detainments come as concerns rise over how the administration is identifying and gathering evidence against student activists. While Khalil and Öztürk publicly identified themselves as supporters of the pro-Palestine movement, they were on two of the 500 campuses that have experienced pro-Palestine protest activity since Oct. 7, 2023.

Not all participants have been vocal about their involvement, and there are concerns that protest surveillance videos are being fed into facial recognition programs in order to identify protestors. The rise in the use of this technology by private actors, who then report their findings to law enforcement, “enters territory previously reserved largely for law enforcement,” according to the attorney of a group of activists suing the use of facial recognition by the company ClearviewAI.

Rubio declined to answer questions over how he received the names of students whose visas were later revoked, and whether or not colleges or outside groups were providing that information. 

“We’re not going to talk about the process by which we’re identifying it because obviously we’re looking for more people,” he said.

The Office of the Chancellor told the Clarion last Tuesday that “there has been no ICE activity on campus, and DU has not received any uncommon student information requests from immigration officials.” 

As the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown, it could result in more serious consequences for international students.