Visas Revoked For 4 More Columbia Students, Provost Says

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — Four more Columbia University students have had their student visas revoked by the Trump administration in the past weekend, the school announced late Sunday evening.

In an evening email to students and faculty, Columbia Provost Angela Olinto said the four visas of the current international students were revoked over the weekend.

"Over the past two days, the University has learned that four current international students have had their visas revoked and participation in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program terminated by the federal government," Olinto wrote.

In the school-wide email, Olinto said the government did not notify the school of the visa changes, and that the school only found out due to persistent database checks.

"The University was not notified of these status terminations and only became aware of them through proactive daily checks in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database by our International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO)," Olinto wrote.

The reasons for the visa cancellations were not immediately clear, but they are the latest in the federal crackdown against the university, which started on March 7, when the Trump administration pulled more than $400 million from Columbia due to what it called the school's "continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students," amid recent pro-Palestinian protests.

That same day, the president vowed to arrest and deport student activists, and Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian Columbia student, was targeted a day later.

Khalil was the first Columbia student to be targeted by Trump and was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on campus despite his status as a legal U.S. permanent resident.

That same week, Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia student from India getting a doctorate in urban planning, had a student visa revoked on March 5 and "self-deported" to Canada on March 11, a spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security said. Srinivasan said she had attended a few protests but was not involved in planning them.

Later that month, Columbia student Yunseo Chung, a student who has a green card and has been in the United States since she was 7 years old, was also arrested.

In the email, Olinto said Columbia's International Students and Scholars Office is monitoring the situation closely and is providing international students with legal assistance and other resources.

"The University deeply values our international scholars and students. Our international community is essential to driving excellence in scholarship and research at Columbia and we are committed to supporting all members of our community," Olinto said.

For questions and tips, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.