Protestor Pat Braun carries a sign April 23, 2025, in Rapid City, South Dakota, to protest the cancellation of student visas. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says his agency and the Department of Homeland Security will work to “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese students.
Rubio’s announcement offered few details but said “under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”
Chinese students comprise the second-largest group of international students in the United States, behind Indian students.
The move is part of the Trump administration’s continuing immigration crackdown and battle with higher education.
In an ongoing scuffle with Harvard University, a reflection of the administration’s efforts to crack down on “woke” institutions and go after campuses they say are harboring antisemitism, the government moved to halt the school’s ability to enroll international students last week.
But Harvard sued over the effort, and the revocation has been temporarily blocked in court.
Under the Trump administration, the State Department has revoked visas of international students who were involved in campus protests and other activities related to Israel’s war in Gaza. Some students were detained by immigration authorities as part of that effort.
Focus on China
In his Wednesday announcement, Rubio said the State Department would also “revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
At the department’s Thursday press briefing, spokesperson Tammy Bruce declined to get into specifics regarding the number of students who would be impacted or what falls within “critical fields,” as Rubio’s statement noted.
Bruce said the United States “will not tolerate the CCP’s exploitation of U.S. universities, or theft of U.S. research, intellectual property or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection or repress voices of opposition.”
More than 277,000 Chinese students studied in the United States during the 2023-24 academic year — making up nearly one-quarter of the more than 1,126,000 total international students in that school year, according to a report from the Institute of International Education and the State Department.
However, the total number of students from China declined slightly from the 2022-23 school year, when that figure stood at more than 289,000.
In the 2023-24 academic year, Chinese students made up one-quarter or more of the total international student population within California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington state and Wisconsin.
New York University, Northeastern University in Massachusetts and Columbia University in New York hosted the highest number of international students during that academic year.
Students from South Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Vietnam and Nigeria also comprised large groups of international students in the United States during the 2023-24 school year.
The announcement raises myriad logistical questions over how the United States would carry out the effort, as well as how officials would determine who has “connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Meanwhile, the State Department temporarily paused new student visa interviews earlier this week as the administration prepares to expand the screening of applicants’ activity on social media, according to multiple reports.
This post was originally authored and published by Shauneen Miranda from Washington State Standard via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
