Visas Revoked at the Border Put a New Dent in American Higher Ed’s Image Abroad

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A spate of high-profile incidents in which international students holding valid visas were stopped at American airports and sent back to their home countries could deal yet another blow to higher education’s image abroad, just as colleges welcome students to campus.

The visa revocations, including to students at Arizona State and Harvard Universities, have alarmed educators, many of whom see the actions taken by customs officials as both arbitrary and excessive. And because it remains largely unclear what led officers to flag the students, administrators say they are at a loss for how to advise others who may be traveling.

“Not knowing what will happen at the border increases fear and anxiety,” says Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance for Higher Education and Immigration, an association of college leaders that advocates for international and undocumented students. “It reinforces doubts and concerns that students may have about studying in the United States.”

Feldblum and others see the stepped-up scrutiny as part of a string of actions by the Trump administration, dating back to the ban on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries announced during the president’s first week in office. Since then, the administration has imposed visa restrictions on Chinese students and scholars, enacted regulations that could bar international students from the United States for relatively minor infractions, and built up a backlog in work permits that have prevented students from starting jobs or internships. Through policy changes and enforcement practices, it is becoming more difficult for students to come to the United States, educators say.

“What we continue to message is that international students need certainty,” Sarah Spreitzer, director of government and public affairs at the American Council on Education. “This does not create certainty.”

In one episode, a Palestinian teenager about to begin his freshman year at Harvard University was questioned for hours after landing in Boston and then deported, allegedly because immigration officials deemed some of his friends’ social-media posts anti-American. Nine Arizona State University undergraduates returning for the fall semester from China were denied admission in Los Angeles; the university says it does not know why they were detained. (Homeland Security officials did not respond to questions about the case.) Meanwhile, the Chinese internet has been blowing up over the story of a student who reportedly had his visa revoked by customs officials in Detroit after they found a bulletproof vest in his luggage.

The Harvard student, Ismail Ajjawi, was allowed into the country in time for the start of classes this week. Those from Arizona State, however, have not been able to re-enter, despite the university’s attempts to intervene, including sending letters to the U.S. secretary of state and the acting secretary of homeland security.

While these cases represent a small minority of the more than one-million international students in the United States, they also did not occur in isolation. Administrators from a half-dozen other colleges shared with The Chronicle incidents in recent months in which students were stopped at ports of entry. (Some asked that their institutions not be identified because of privacy concerns or because they did not have permission to speak with a reporter.)

In several of the cases, customs officials searched students’ phones and computers before questioning them about issues including academic cheating, drug use, illegal off-campus work, or run-ins with the law, such as drunken driving.

Two students at McNeese State University, in Louisiana, were among those denied entry, says Preble Giltz Girard, director of international programs. While Girard says she recognizes that border officers need to look into students’ backgrounds in the name of national security, oftentimes neither officials nor students themselves give clear information about why they were detained. “It’s all sort of nebulous,” she says.

A New Front

In the past, international students entering the country have been subject to additional screening. For a time following the Boston Marathon bombing, for example, all students had to go through an extra inspection.

But student-visa advisers see the scrutiny of students’ electronic devices and social media as a new front. While the State Department this year began requiring visa applicants, including students, to submit social-media information, the Department of Homeland Security, which screens travelers at the border, first announced on Wednesday that it, too, plans to collect social-media handles. In a notice published in the Federal Register, the department said it needed such information to validate applicants’ identity and to determine whether they pose a law enforcement or national security risk. The public has until November 4 to comment on the proposed change.

“Now you’ve got to be worried about what every one of your friends say online?” says Ronald B. Cushing, director of international services at the University of Cincinnati, referring to the Harvard case. “It seems so subjective.”

Kathryn E. Tudini chairs the International Student and Scholar Regulatory Practice Committee for Nafsa: Association of International Educators. She says college advisers feel a little “blind-sided” by the reviews of social media and heightened scrutiny of students at the border. Immigration officials have given them little indication what in a student’s background will trip alarms.

“It’s my job to advise students about X, Y, and Z,” says Tudini, who is assistant vice provost for and director of international-student services at the University at Buffalo. “The hardest part is I don’t know what X, Y, and Z is now.”

As a result, she struggles with how to properly counsel students. Telling them to delete their social-media history, for example, could backfire by raising border officers’ suspicions. Likewise, students should know that if they are denied entry to the United States, they should withdraw their application and agree to return home; to be forcibly deported is a permanent black mark that could prevent them from returning. “I could tell all my international students that in an email,” Tudini says, “but wouldn’t that scare them more?”

Even if relatively few students are directly affected by enhanced screening, its impact is magnified by the attention paid to these cases, at home and abroad, says Philip G. Altbach, founding director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College.

“The perception is likely worse than the reality,” Altbach says, “but the perception becomes the reality.”

Karin Fischer writes about international education, colleges and the economy, and other issues. She’s on Twitter @karinfischer, and her email address is karin.fischer@chronicle.com.