Why it matters:
The U.S. government is revoking the students' visas out of the fear of student anti-Israeli protests and sit-ins on the campuses as it keeps supporting the Israeli war on Gaza to expel them from the last part of their country, Palestine.
The big picture:
The State Department's "Catch and Revoke" program, powered partly by AI, scrapes social media to identify foreign nationals allegedly supporting the termination of Israeli strikes on Gaza. The U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed over 300 visa terminations in March, calling student activists "lunatics."
Key points:
- The students have lost their F-1 or J-1 student visas.
- The revocations are due to engagement in pro-Palestinian activism.
- Visas have also been revoked due to non-criminal offenses.
State of play:
University of Florida students are organizing a protest to support Felipe Zapata Velázquez, a 27-year-old Colombian student deported after being arrested for traffic violations.
- His family said he was “undergoing a physical and emotional recovery process” in his home country after police arrested him on 28 March.
- Florida Democratic congressman Maxwell Frost said that Felipe Zapata Velázquez is just the latest victim of Trump’s disgusting campaign against immigrants.
Context:
The arrest of students and revocation of their visas are on the agenda under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The case of Mahmoud Khalil, an alumnus of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and a leading pro-Palestinian activist at the institution, fueled the U.S. crisis. He was arrested by federal agents on March 8.
Go deeper:
U.S. Detention of Student Activists: National Security Fears or Political Repression?
seyed mohammad kazemi
