Trump administration leaves students questioning US study

More than 130 international students across US universities have joined a federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully cancelling their visas.

As reported by The Arab Weekly citing agency sources on April 29th, the lawsuit has been filed in the wake of the recent crackdown on top US universities by Trump.

The Trump administration has set about accusing US universities such as Harvard and Columbia of harbouring anti-semitism due to pro-Palestinian protests that have taken place since Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip following the attacks from Hamas on October 7th 2023.

Those students involved in such protests have been described as “lunatics” by US Secretary of State Marc Rubio who also accused foreign students of coming “not just to study but to participate in movements that vandalise universities, harass students, take over buildings and cause chaos.”

Whilst foreign students already in the US have launched a lawsuit, others who are you yet to arrive in the country have been left to reconsider coning at all.

Arab-German Tariq Kandil spoke of his fears of entering the US despite being granted the opportunity to study in the county for six months: “I didn’t want to have to censor myself just to be able to enter the country, the United States is supposed to be the country of free speech.”

Kandil’s fears are not unfounded and the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil on March 8th is perhaps the starkest example of this.

Khalil was arrested by US authorities for his peaceful role in pro-Palestinian protests that took place on Columbia University Campus.

According to a letter signed off by 14 House Democrats, since being arrested he had “been denied meaningful access to counsel and any visitation from his family. This is absolutely unacceptable – and illegal.”

Since then, an immigration judge in Louisiana has determined that he can be deported out of the country, despite being a legal US citizen.

The Arab Weekly, Maghrebi, AP