Trump escalates campus crackdown with over 300 student visas revoked: Over 300 international students learn their visas have been revoked, some suspect AI is involved in execution of policy.

Over 300 international students have had their visas suddenly revoked by the Trump administration amid a major escalation in the crackdown on student activism in the United States. What began as a targeted attack against some of the most vocal pro-Palestine students, starting with the arrest of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, has now escalated into a broader attack against international students in general.

Students across the country at a variety of both public and private institutions including but not at all limited to Harvard University, the University of Tennessee, the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas at Austin, and throughout the University of California system.

A lawsuit filed on April 5 by a California college student suing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons claims that these visa revocations are “primarily targeting” students of African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and Asian origin. According to journalist Prem Thakker writing for independent outlet Zeteo News, who spoke to a wide swath of students targeted by this policy, this is “a likelihood affirmed by university officials, students, and attorneys Zeteo has spoken with.”

These visa revocations, which have taken place over the past few days of early April, are reportedly done with little explanation or reasoning and feel “AI or computer-driven,” as immigration lawyer Jath Shao told Zeteo News. According to Shao, the execution of this latest crackdown feels like “someone wrote a program, like, okay if A, then B.”

The execution of this policy has been riddled with a sense of arbitrariness. One of Shao’s clients had her visa revoked based on being a domestic violence victim–not perpetrator–who was arrested alongside the other party involved in the domestic violence incident but was never charged with a crime. Other students have reported having visas revoked over minor violations such as a speeding ticket.

Could these revocations be driven by AI? Secretary of State Marco Rubio has indeed launched the AI-based “Catch and Revoke” program, which utilizes artificial intelligence to scour the social media accounts of student visa holders for potential support for Hamas or other US-designated terrorist groups. So-called support for Hamas has been used as a pretext by the Trump administration to target those who express support for Palestine. Many have raised alarms about this program, including Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center for Justice, who expects that such a program would be prone to “rudimentary mistakes.”