As the Trump administration continues to crack down on activism and protests at US universities and colleges, the State Department has allegedly sent an email to international students asking them to "Self-deport" themselves.
In a report by the Times of India, immigration attorneys told the Indian daily that many international students have received this mailer from the US State Department.
As per the report, this crackdown is based on social media reviews conducted by the state department. Students under the F (academic visa), M (vocational study visa) or J (exchange visa) visas will also come under the scrutiny of these social media checks.
This check comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched an AI-fueled campaign - "catch and revoke". This aims at "catching" international students who appear to support Hamas or any other government-declared terrorist organisations or as sympathisers, and then "revoking" their visas.
Based on these, international students have been asked to self-deport using the CBP Home app. The email from the state department also tells students to physically present their visas at the US Consulates so that they can be "physically cancelled."
Following this campaign, over 300 foreign students have had their visas revoked.
What Does The Email Say?
As reported by TOI and Axios, the email from the US State Department reads -
“On behalf of the US Department of State, the Bureau of Consular Affairs Visa Office hereby informs you that additional information became available after your visa was issued. As a result, your F-1 visa with expiration date XXXXX was revoked in accordance with Section 221(i) of the US Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended.”
“The Bureau of Consular Affairs Visa Office has alerted the Dept of Homeland Security라이브 바카라 Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which manages the Student Exchange Visitor Program and is responsible for removal. They may notify your designated school official about the revocation of your F-1 visa.”
Students are then asked to use the CBP Home App to deport themselves, and the consequences of failing to do so would be "forced deportation." One of the most recent examples of this was an Indian doctoral student at Columbia University, Ranjani Srinivasan, who self-deported after her visa was revoked over alleged campus activism.
