90,000 Arab students in US under Trump scanner

A Louisiana immigration judge ruled last Friday in a high-profile case that Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil could be deported for pro-Palestinian activism. He is not only a legal permanent resident but also the husband of a US citizen. His case should serve as a warning to international students that freedom of speech, guaranteed in the first amendment to the US Constitution, is relative and rationed. Khalil’s case is not the only one to generate headlines and protest. Turkish doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts University was grabbed by immigration agents while in the street near Boston and transferred to Louisiana where she is awaiting deportation hearings. She criticised in a student newspaper the university’s response to the Gaza war. Iran-born Canadian national Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi, deputy director of Yale University’s Law and Political Economy Project and associate research scholar at Yale Law School, has been fired after being accused of associating with anti-Israel groups.

Cornell University PhD candidate Momodou Taal, a dual citizen of Britain and Gambia, who took part in pro-Palestine protests, fled the US before immigration agents could detain him. While US universities and colleges are the most popular in the world among international students, those applying to and attending these institutions of higher learning should understand that the Trump administration seeks to muzzle anyone who expresses support for Palestine as this is deemed a threat to US national security. Among the 1.1 million international students currently studying on the US are 90,000 Arab students from 21 countries whose thoughts, speech and activities are under investigation by the Trump administration. Although the number of students affected is small, the circle of intimidation is wide and widening.

On January 30th, Donald Trump signed an executive order to “combat the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and streets” following Israel’s war on Gaza mounted after the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. An estimated 1,000 foreign students at more than 80 universities have been deported or detained ahead of deportation. These students have had their studies and academic research disrupted.

India’s Economic Times listed dozens of universities where visas have been revoked. Harvard University has lost three students and two recent graduates. At California’s Stanford University four current students and two recent graduates have been affected.

In the University of California system – which consists of five branches – 35 students and recent alumni have been targeted. Four students have had their visas cancelled at the University of Michigan and one student has left the US. Seven students at Ohio State University, one at Emerson College, and two graduate students at Tufts University were impacted. At Columbia University four students have had their visas cancelled, including Khalil.

One student was affected at Oregon University, 50 at Arizona State, three at the University of Pennsylvania, 40 at Northeastern University, three at Duke University, four at Central Michigan University, six at Colorado State University, three at Kent State University, five at Minnesota University, two at North Carolina University, a “small number” at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Kentucky, and four at the University of Nevada.

Multiple students lost visas at the University of Massachusetts and Boston University, and Berklee College of Music. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified this campaign by claiming those targeted were involved in activities that “run counter” to US national interests. Detainees have been abducted, handcuffed, and moved to a detention facility in Louisiana where they do not reside.

While the number of unprecedented deportations has received considerable attention in the media, the actual figure is tiny when the total number of international students is taken into account. However, every arrest and deportation amount to a serious infringement on the liberty and rights of students at a time their futures are being decided.

To make matters worse, universities have suffered and been threatened with cuts in federal funding since Trump began his second term in office. The chief cause for action against foreign students is cited as anti-Semitism on campus, an accusation promoted by pro-Israeli groups to stifle criticism of Israel and pro-Palestinian activism.

The domestic cause is university efforts to provide scholarships to students from disadvantaged US ethnic communities.

Columbia lost access to $400 million. Johns Hopkins has been deprived of nearly $4 billion in annual aid (40 per cent of its revenue), forcing the university to reduce research and layoff 2,200 staff. Cornell, Yale, Duke and Emory are also among those penalised.

This is a very shortsighted funding policy as international students contributed $44 billion to the US economy and supported 378,000 jobs during the last academic year, according to the Association of American Universities (AAU). It said this was the “highest amount ever calculated.”

The data showed that “for every three international students, one US job is created/supported. States with the largest economic benefit from “international students were California, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, and Illinois.”

The Open Doors 2024 Report published on International Educational Exchange said “more than half (56%) of international students across academic levels pursued [scientific] fields of study,” with one in four (25%) studying maths and computer science and nearly one in five (19%) studying engineering.” These students play a significant rule in research and entrepreneurship. “US economic competitiveness increasingly depends on international talent, and it is crucial that American immigration policies continue to enable international students to come to our universities,” the AAU said.

Trump’s campaign against international students and US universities can only impoverish the entire US education system which has been under challenge for decades. International students bring a new global and cultural dimension to university life wherever they study.

My interest in the Arab world was kindled when I attended a summer seminar for high school students at the University of Michigan where I met graduate students from Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, and Kuwait. At that time, I did not even know where these countries were located thanks to a deprived public-school education. Those encounters propelled me to investigate and dwell in this region which has given me a rich life.