International students face ‘unprecedented’ crackdown in Trump’s first year back in office

Less than two weeks into the new year, the US State Department posted an image on its official social media account declaring in capital letters, “100,000 visas revoked.”

The message highlighted the immigration crackdown that has marked US President Donald Trump’s first year back in office.

About 8,000 of those visas, the post claimed, had been held by international students but “who had encounters with U.S. law enforcement for criminal activity”. “We will continue to deport these thugs to keep America safe,” the Instagram announcement declared.

It is unclear how many of the students whose visas were revoked are Indian. The Indian Embassy in Washington DC did not respond to Scroll’s questions about the numbers of Indian students who may have had their visas cancelled and whether such students had been given guidelines about how to proceed.

While illegal immigration has dominated Trump’s agenda from the outset, he has intensified scrutiny on one group as never before: international students.

They have been targeted with sweeping restrictions on entry into the US, unprecedented vetting rules and sudden cancellations of current student visas and, in the case of students from over 20 countries, suspensions of future ones being issued.

Scroll analysed every official notification issued by the Trump administration since it took office, affecting the more than 1.58 million international students in the country. Since May 2025, the US has altered or mandated new policies governing student visas almost every month.

“Hostility towards international scientists and researchers isn’t unheard of in the United States,” said Vivien Leung, an assistant professor of Political Science at the Santa Clara University. However, the current administration’s crackdown on foreign students is “unprecedented”, she said.

“I don’t think we have ever seen such a direct push towards excising international students,” Leung continued.

Screening, vetting and visa chaos

It began in May, four months after Trump took office. On May 27, US embassies and consulates around the world were instructed to immediately halt scheduling new student visa appointments. The cable, obtained by Politico, cited “an expansion of required social media screening and vetting”.

The move appeared to be an extension of the administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the US. Issued just weeks before the start of the fall semester at American universities, the message did not spell out what this expanded social media scrutiny would entail.

Some students became afraid of posting news or messages about Gaza on social media. Others became apprehensive about sharing anything critical of the US government at all.

Shortly after, on June 6, 2025, the US Department of State made an official announcement that effective June 9, it had “partially suspended” issuing certain non-immigrant visas to citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. This included student visas.

It ended with a note: “This Presidential Proclamation only applies to foreign nationals who are outside the United States on the effective date AND do not hold a valid visa on the effective date”.

It took until June 18 for the administration to address the May visa halt.

The State Department announced that the screening of student visa applicants’ social media profiles and broader “online presence” would require applicants to set their accounts to “public”.

“A US visa is a privilege, not a right,” the announcement said. “Every visa adjudication is a national security decision”.

Soon after, Scroll spoke to Indian student visa applicants and reported on the increased anxiety this new policy caused. Students who had already applied for their visas but were awaiting decisions scrambled to understand what this meant for them.

Those who were yet to apply cataloged every trace of their online presence – even if inactive. Additional anxiety was caused by WhatsApp messages claiming that even those with no social media presence had reason to be nervous as this could also be a red flag for visa officials.

Two months later, the BBC reported that the US had revoked over 6,000 student visas. Over 60% of them, the State Department told the outlet, were due to previous criminal charges ranging from driving under the influence of intoxicating substances, assault, burglary and “support for terrorism” – a phrase it did not elaborate on.

The same month, on August 28, the administration took it a step further. The Department of Homeland Security proposed limiting the duration of stay for international students. This followed repeated signals from Trump administration officials about ending provisions that allowed students to work in the US for some time after they had finished their courses.

It also recommended imposing a maximum period of four years for all international and exchange students. But students – especially those in PhD programmes in the US – often take longer to complete their degrees, according to studies by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics.

Soon after, the administration added another item to its immigration agenda: ending, or at least restricting, Optional Practical Training. This provision allows international graduates to work in their field as an extension of their student visas, without applying for separate permits.

The proposed rule cited “fraud and national security concerns” and the need to “protect US workers from being displaced by foreign nationals”.

It remains unclear whether the proposal will be formalised, or when a decision might be taken.

If implemented, immigration and education experts say it would deal a significant blow to international students. Optional Practical Training, they argue, is one of the strongest incentives drawing foreign students to American universities.

Indian students in the US – a population that surpassed China recently – are the largest beneficiary of the Optional Practical Training extension in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields, as per a 2024 report by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As many as 48% of all those who choose this option to work after completing their studies were Indians as of last year.

Now, in just the first three weeks of 2026, the administration has suspended entry and new visa issuance – including student visas – for citizens of 20 countries. They include Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan and Palestine. Another 15 countries have been placed under a “partial ban list”.

Issuing new student visas, as it happens, are suspended as per both the lists.

Leung, who teaches American politics in one of California’s oldest graduate institutions, the current administration has targeted higher education and science, driven by the xenophobia of its support base. “International students are at the centre of all of that,” she said.

Restricting their entry and perilling their futures in the US, Leung believes, would have “deep ramifications in the economy”.