An AI doctoral student in California recently faced a severe threat to their immigration status when their SEVIS record, the digital proof of their valid student visa, was terminated. The student, who wished to remain anonymous due to concerns of reprisal, reported that they were informed by their college’s international student center of their identification during a criminal records check.
They have been studying in the U.S. for nearly a decade and have no criminal history. The student speculated that an old interaction with the police might have caused this issue, despite it occurring long before they entered graduate school.
This incident is part of a broader trend, as over a thousand international students have seen their visa statuses challenged due to an aggressive crackdown by the Trump administration. Many affected students received no notification from federal agencies, leaving them with little notice or options for recourse.
Yisong Yue, a machine learning professor at Caltech, expressed concerns that the government’s strict approach to student visas is damaging the talent pipeline in the U.S. He noted that the repercussions of pulling a doctoral student from research can halt progress for months or even years.
The crackdown has affected numerous institutions, from Ivy League schools to smaller liberal arts colleges. The government has accused some students of serious offenses while others faced revocation for minor infractions like traffic violations.
Many revocations appeared to be errors, as demonstrated by the case of Suguru Onda, a student whose visa was reinstated shortly after legal action was taken. A recent ruling by a Georgia judge temporarily reinstated the legal status of about 100 international students who faced similar revocations, though the decision only applies to a small fraction and may be contested in the future.
Yue emphasized the essential contributions of international students to advancements in AI, noting that influential figures like Ashish Vaswani and Wojciech Zaremba were international students themselves. A recent analysis revealed that international students contributed significantly to the U.S. economy, underlining their importance in the national landscape.
Concerns remain among researchers and professors at leading institutions, who worry that the current immigration policies may deter future talent from choosing the U.S. as their destination for study and innovation.