The federal government has revoked the visas of some international students who attend UConn and Yale, the universities said.
The Trump administration has targeted students across the U.S. who have been involved with pro-Palestinian activism or speech, with a few high-profile detentions of students. But more schools are seeing visas stripped from students who don’t have connections to protests.
It’s not clear whether the UConn or Yale students have connections to pro-Palestinian protests.
In some cases, past infractions such as traffic violations have been cited. Across the U.S., some colleges say the reasons remain unclear to them — and they are seeking answers.
In a statement posted online, UConn said that “while the number of impacted students here is small, consequences for those impacted are significant.”
Yale University recently confirmed that the visas of two of its international students were terminated, the Yale Daily News reported.
UConn says it is regularly monitoring a database used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that maintains information on international students and visiting scholars on certain visas. Once UConn notices a change on a student’s status, the university alerts the student or visiting scholar and offers them university support services. The university also notifies the student or scholar’s department head and dean.
“Each student or visiting scholar’s situation is unique, and support for each case is coordinated through” various departments, UConn said.
UConn said its “university units are working together to prepare our campuses and respond as quickly as possible to this rapidly evolving situation.” In February, UConn established a “rapid response team” to address immigration policy changes that could affect colleges and universities.
UConn and Yale join other colleges that have discovered students have had their legal status terminated – including Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA and Ohio State University.
Inside Higher Ed reports that as of Friday, more than 140 colleges and universities have determined that more than 700 international students and recent graduates have had their legal status changed by federal officials.
Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but college leaders say the government has been quietly terminating students’ legal residency status with little notice to students or schools. That marks a shift from past practice and leaves students vulnerable to detention and deportation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
