Nervous yet?
If you are or know a student visiting the United States and going to school here— college, trade or high school— your stress these days extends beyond the classroom.
In addition to exams, reports, and general studies now you may be factoring into your routine consideration what you say, where you say it and to whom you say it.
The Trump administration is tightening its grip on student visas. According to one study, the federal government has revoked student-visas across 32 states, affecting about 300 students in roughly three months.
In San Diego, the visas of at least 35 students have been revoked, according to The San Diego Union Tribune. There also have been students at San Diego State University and the University of San Diego who have been told they have to withdraw from school and leave the country.
At Southwestern College, fortunately, there have been no reported cases.
The Trump State Department contends many of the students have been engaged in disruptive political behavior, citing participation in Pro-Palestine demonstrations.
The feds equate wanting an end to genocide as support of a terrorist group.
Incidentally there has been no indication that any of these foreign students were participants in an actual attempt to overthrow the United States on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and tried to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
In fact, many of the students and the universities were not given a reason for the visa revocations, leaving students, their families, friends, colleagues and co-workers in the dark, harassed by uncertainty.
The law-and-order crowd who dismiss the government’s actions as repercussions for those who violated laws should consider that the U.S. constitution guarantees that everyone in this country is entitled to due process. In essence, everyone has a right to know why they are being singled out and punished. When the federal government flouts the rules, the law and order that is supposed to apply to everyone appears to be only for a select few.
Does that make you nervous yet? Does that make you mad?
It should.
