The U.S. government has revoked the visa of a Middlebury College international student, leaving the person at risk for deportation.
University spokespeople declined to comment or identify the people involved. They shared an announcement sent to faculty, staff and students Wednesday notifying them that a Middlebury student and three alumni from the Middlebury Institute recently had their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records terminated by the U.S. government, effectively revoking their visas.
Representatives from student affairs are working with them to determine next steps and to provide support, the Wednesday post states.
“Middlebury must abide by federal laws and regulations related to student and faculty visas and immigration status. We are taking steps to protect our community through legal pathways,” the announcement states.
From Stanford to Harvard, more than 1,000 international students across 160 colleges have had their visas or legal status revoked since March, according to the Associated Press.
Concerned about the growing federal reach into college campuses and recent detentions of international students nationwide, Middlebury College has signed on to an amicus brief for a lawsuit filed by the the American Association of University Professors challenging the detentions and deportations happening on college campuses.
Middlebury College is committed to its international community, the Wednesday announcement states, and hosted an online discussion with an immigration attorney Monday to discuss recent policies and traveling abroad.
“We are aware that the revocation of visas is a troubling trend at U.S. colleges and universities and want to express our commitment to supporting our international students, faculty, and staff. Our international community is absolutely integral to Middlebury and inseparable from our identity as an inclusive global community,” the online post states.
College leadership encouraged international students with questions about their immigration status to contact International Student and Scholar Services and continues to monitor the status of sponsored international students and scholars, the announcement added.
Middlebury also posted an FAQ this week stating that while the college “will not voluntarily provide personally identifiable information about students, faculty or staff to the federal government,” it cannot prevent federal immigration enforcement officers from entering public spaces on campus.
The announcement comes two days after an Upper Valley resident with legal residency status was detained by masked, plainclothes federal agents during a scheduled citizenship interview at the Colchester field office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, remains detained at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans as his lawyers work to prevent his deportation. A judge has issued a temporary restraining order to prevent his removal from Vermont or the United States. Vermont’s congressional delegation has condemned the arrest, and 67 House Democrats have signed a letter demanding answers from the federal government.
A former student at Columbia University who helped organize protests and spoke out against the alleged crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians, Mahdawi was born in the West Bank and has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States for 10 years.
‘Unlawful terminations’
Colleges across Vermont are warily watching the news and working with campus organizations to support international students.
While St. Michael’s College has not been affected by immigration enforcement efforts, “We have also been working with our own campus community members to ensure they feel supported and have the information they need if faced with a similar situation,” Gretchen Galbraith, vice president of academic affairs and provost said in an emailed statement.
Adam White, a University of Vermont spokesperson, declined to say whether students with visas have been targeted. International students, faculty and staff may contact the Office of International Education with questions specific to their individual situations, he said in an email.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been fighting cases pertaining to students and other legal residents who have had their legal status revoked, condemned the targeting of students and wrote in an emailed statement that “such arbitrary administrative action flies in the face of due process and our shared democratic values.”
“Across the country — and now in Vermont — we are seeing students who are lawfully present in the U.S. to pursue an education have their F-1 statuses abruptly terminated, and their liberty and academic futures threatened,” Hillary Rich, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Vermont, wrote in an email. “These unlawful terminations are part of the Trump administration’s coordinated attack on students and institutions of higher learning.”