Middlebury College said this week that the federal government had terminated the records of one of its students and three alumni from a key database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.
A record termination in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, usually indicates a foreign student is no longer permitted to be in the U.S. Middlebury College has shared little about the students in question, their immigration status, or their circumstances. But college officials have suggested these events fit a pattern evident in a nationwide crackdown on foreign students.
“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,” college leaders said in a statement posted online. “Our international community is absolutely integral to Middlebury and inseparable from our identity as an inclusive global community.”
VTDigger was first to report Middlebury’s announcement.
Inside Higher Ed is tracking the crackdown, and reports that, as of this Friday, over 1,500 foreign students have lost their visas or had their legal status revoked. Some of the most high-profile examples have involved students explicitly targeted for pro-Palestinian activism, as in the case of Upper Valley resident and Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi. But in many instances, it’s unclear why the federal government has canceled an individual’s right to study in the United States.
“The U.S. government is not providing an explanation of the specific reason for individual SEVIS record terminations,” Middlebury officials wrote in an update posted Thursday to its international student services website.
“In the current moment, a visa revocation may lead to a government-initiated SEVIS record termination. The SEVIS terminations may be based on a visa revocation or another reason, which may never be known,” officials added.
In New Hampshire, Dartmouth College recently discovered that the records for two of their students had been terminated, and one of these students — Chinese national Xiaotian Liu — sued the Department of Homeland Security. In court last week, according to the New Hampshire Bulletin, an attorney for the federal government said he was still awaiting information from Homeland Security and could not say why the doctoral student’s visa had been revoked — or even confirm that it had been done intentionally.
Middlebury College officials say they are working with affected students to assist them. The school has also joined an amicus brief submitted by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration supporting a lawsuit challenging the detentions and deportations of foreign students.
