Student visas in the U.S.: Why the Trump administration is revoking them and who is affected

The visas of hundreds of international students in the United States have been revoked in recent weeks amid a broader immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, which includes arrests, often without warning, and a task force to combat antisemitism on several college campuses across the country, officials say.

Videos of some of the arrests, showing plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents handcuffing and arresting students near their homes, have shocked the international student community in the United States, fearing deportation.

A federal lawsuit filed by immigration attorneys seeking to prevent visa revocation and possible deportation of the affected students claims the visas were canceled “abruptly and unlawfully.”

“Plaintiffs’ SEVIS records were abruptly and unlawfully terminated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), stripping them of their ability to continue their studies and maintain employment in the United States and risking arrest, detention, and deportation,” says the lawsuit obtained by CNN and filed by Kuck Baxter, an Atlanta-based immigration law firm.

SEVIS is an acronym for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, used by the Department of Homeland Security to maintain information primarily on international students and their status in the country.