'No more visas for foreign students in the US' - Trump administration bans applications and interviews at embassies!
President Donald Trump's administration has ordered its missions abroad to stop scheduling new appointments for student visa applicants and exchange visitors, as the State Department prepares to expand social media vetting of foreign students, according to an internal cable seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a cable that the department plans to issue updated guidance on social media verification of student and exchange visitor applicants after a review is completed and advised consular sections to stop scheduling such visa appointments. The move comes as the Trump administration has sought to increase deportations and revoke student visas as part of its broader efforts to implement its tough immigration agenda.
Several hundred protesters, including Harvard University students and professors, demonstrated in support of international students on Harvard's campus on Tuesday, while also protesting the Trump administration's efforts to cut off funding to the university. In the cable, first reported by Politico, Rubio said that meetings that are already scheduled can proceed under current guidelines, but available meetings that have not yet been scheduled should be canceled.
"The Department is conducting a review of existing operations and processes for screening and verifying student and exchange visitor (F, M, J) visa applicants, and based on this review, plans to issue guidance on enhanced social media verification for all such applicants," the cable said.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce declined to comment on the cable reports, but said the U.S. would use "every tool" to vet anyone seeking entry into the United States. "We will continue to use every tool we can to assess who is coming here, whether they are students or not," Bruce told reporters at a regular news conference.
The expanded social media vetting will require consular sections to modify their operations, processes and resource allocation, according to the cable, which advises sections in the future to consider the workload and resource requirements of each case before assigning them.
The document also advises consular sections to remain focused on services for U.S. citizens, immigrant visas and fraud prevention. Trump administration officials have said that student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation because of their support for the Palestinians and criticism of Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy and accusing them of being pro-Hamas.
Trump's critics have called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A Tufts University student from Turkey was held for more than six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school's response to Israel's war in Gaza. She was released from custody after a federal judge granted her bail.
Last week, the Trump administration moved to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students. Those roughly 6,800 students make up about 27% of Harvard’s total enrollment. The Republican president’s administration has taken steps to undermine the financial stability and global standing of the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, after resisting government demands for major changes to its policies.
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