The Chilling Effect: Deportations of International Students and the Future of U.S. Higher Education
Last month, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University was detained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Tuesday, March 25th, Rumeysa Ozturk had just left her home in her university town of Somerville when she was stopped and detained by six individuals in masks claiming to be the police. Homeland security officials claimed it was due to her sympathy and possible connection to the Hammas terrorist organization, leading to the termination of her student visa, though no evidence of this has been made public.
The month of March was filled with President Trump making good on his promise to be ruthless in his deportation efforts. On March 9th, four days after attending a sit-in protest of several students involved in pro-Palestinaian activism, ICE agents showed up at the home of Yunseo Chung’s parents’ home to arrest her (a federal judge has since ordered the Trump administration to halt its efforts to arrest and deport Yunseo).
On March 25th, Momodou Taal, a Ph.D. student in Africana studies at Cornell was instructed to to turn himself to ICE following involvement in pro-Palestinian protests. Taal had previously filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting universities and foreign national protesters.
While there is much to make of these recent targetings of international students involved in political activism, particularly those supporting Palestinian causes, I cannot help but wonder what the ramifications of these actions will be for universities and international enrollment in the coming years. If I was an international student - whether I supported Palestinian causes or not - I would certainly be thinking twice about investing in American education knowing that my visa could be revoked at any time based on my political beliefs, or in this case, a lack of support for the sitting American president.
Implications for College Admissions and Enrollment
Certainly, we can anticipate this will have a direct impact on how students from the Middle East and South America will feel about the U.S. as a host country. Co-Founder of Adams Admissions Consulting and Dean of Student Success Services at Trinity Christian College, Rocio Mendez-Rozo, talked about the potential impact on international student communities as a result of the new Trump Immigration policies. “International students already weigh multiple factors when choosing where to study, and a country’s immigration policies play a significant role in shaping that decision. Policies that are perceived as restrictive can create a lot of anxiety for students, as well as administrators on college campuses who work hard to make sure that their students follow visa guidelines, while also supporting them through a major life transition. At a time when higher education enrollment is already low, international students contribute significantly to campus economies and institutional growth. These policies risk pushing incredible students away, exacerbating enrollment challenges and forcing U.S. colleges and universities to reckon with long-term impact on the sector’s sustainability.”
It’s not just at the undergraduate level. In fact, the aforementioned incidents all involved advanced degree seeking students at elite private institutions. It seems safe to infer that top international talent from targeted countries will likely think twice about studying abroad and that these recent incidents will force universities to either double down on their support for their international students, or align with a president that has threatened to revoke federal funding from any university that doesn’t concede to supporting his policy initiatives.
Even if universities aren’t compelled morally to protect their students, they must assess the ramifications of Trump’s most recent deportation efforts on their own institutional well-being. The United States has long positioned itself as a beacon for academic freedom and opportunity to international students; these values are now increasingly at odds with current immigration enforcement tactics. The international student community contributes significantly to the diversity and intellectual vibrancy of university campuses, but what is likely even more important to these universities is that they also significantly contribute to most universities’ financial health. As Dean Mendez-Rozo describes, international students comprise up to 25% of elite institution student bodies, most of whom are full-pay students; a significant dip in international student enrollment could have major ramifications financially.
Not only are International students a vital component of the U.S. higher education financial ecosystem; they are part of the American financial ecosystem. The economic impact on the United States of international students at American Universities is staggering. According to research conducted by NAFSA, in the 2023-2024 academic year alone, over 1.1 million international students contributed approximately $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy, supporting more than 378,000 jobs.
While current targets seem to be students involved in pro-Palestinian activism, President Trump has consistently been less concerned with particular issues and more concerned with loyalty and adherence to his agenda. Who is to say that there won’t be a different target next week? Or next year? Or in the next four years? This environment of uncertainty and fear of visa revocation based on political beliefs or ethnic association creates an atmosphere that will likely impact international student recruitment more broadly.
Final Thoughts
In our current political climate, international students are being asked to prove not just academic merit - but ideological alignment with President Donald Trump. Today, students are having their visas revoked for ties to pro-Palesitinian causes. Tomorrow, it could be a student from Scotland publicly standing with the European Union. A month from now it could be graduate students from Ukraine.
For institutions, and a country, that rely heavily on the global pipeline of talent and financial resources, the stakes are incredibly high.