Editor’s note: After this story was published, SIU communications officials reached out to the Daily Egyptian to confirm an additional visa revocation at the university. The officials say that they’ve learned about this revocation via the student themself. 

Officials have now additionally confirmed that there have been four total SEVIS terminations at SIU. One PhD student, one undergrad student and one Optional Practical Training student. The university will not confirm how far along the fourth student was in their studies. 

These numbers are only what university officials are willing to disclose. SEVIS status, as detailed below, is difficult to keep track of, and only few have access to it. 

While it is still unclear exactly how many Southern Illinois University students in Carbondale have had their visas revoked, the university now confirms that several have been impacted by the federal government’s sweeping crackdown on international students. 

At an SIU Faculty Senate meeting on Tuesday, April 15, Provost Sheryl Tucker told concerned faculty members that “multiple” students had been affected – though she declined to give an exact number, citing federal privacy laws under FERPA. 

“There are multiple students,” Tucker said. “But because of FERPA, we would not confirm the number of individuals at this time.”

On, Tuesday, April 22, a day after this story was published, SIU officials reached out to the Daily Egyptian stating that two students have notified them that their visas have been revoked. Those are the only two instances that the university is willing to speak about because the students themselves confirmed it. 

These instances mark the first acknowledgment from SIU that more than one international student has been caught in the federal dragnet. Previously, the university had only confirmed a single case – a student whose visa was revoked and who has since left the country. 

The crackdown has sent ripples through the campus community, leaving international students anxious, faculty seeking answers and administrators under pressure to address growing demands for clarity. With few details and no formal explanations from the federal government, SIU – like many institutions nationwide – is struggling to navigate a shifting legal and political seascape where the tides are turning fast and where few know which way the current is pulling. 

Since U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared late last month that he would be intensifying efforts to revoke the visas of international students who act counter to U.S. foreign policy, the total number of students affected nationwide has been reported by multiple news outlets to now be in the thousands. 

These actions have caused chaos within many university entities, not only among international students, but also within university administration, faculty groups, legal scholars, student organizations and the public. 

The sporadic nature of these revocations and the unprecedented rule-bending from the federal government has fostered a process that lacks transparency among all parties involved. 

This dilemma – at the federal, state and university levels – has propagated a culture of fear within higher education systems in the United States. 

With the federal government supplying little information to students and universities about the reasons behind these actions, understanding this issue has become increasingly difficult – lost in legal greywater that continues to grow murkier.

Here’s how it all works

To understand what’s happening, it’s important to look at the systems driving these decisions.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Program, overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Department of Homeland Security, manages international students studying in the U.S. through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.

This centralized database, also known as SEVIS, tracks enrollment status, addresses, academic progress and other relevant data about international students. SEVIS Designated School Officials at universities typically update and monitor these records. 

Under standard procedures, visa terminations occur due to explicit violations, such as non-enrollment, unauthorized employment or criminal convictions. However, the recent spate of revocations are much different than in years past.

According to ICE, if an international student has their SEVIS record terminated, their presence in the country would be considered unlawful . This can lead to arrest and deportation proceedings. 

SEVIS termination means that students are “out of status” – meaning they would no longer be eligible for on-campus employment, practical training, travel signatures for re-entry to the U.S. or any other benefits.

When an international student has their visa revoked, the federal government has deemed them “out of status.” When an international student has their SEVIS terminated, the federal government has deemed them “out of status.” 

The specific reasons why they are out of status are not being provided.

“There does not appear to be any rhyme or reason as to who is being targeted,” Tucker said to the Faculty Senate. She added that while some students have clean records, others only have minor violations, such as traffic tickets. 

“There are others on some campuses that have been involved in or that have social media posts about some of the events in the Middle East,” Tucker said. “But there is no consistency, it appears, which is more frightening.”

Ambiguity in enforcement

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, students have been receiving generic, vague emails from the exchange program. 

“I’m very sorry to inform you that your SEVIS record is now marked as ‘terminated’ by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), indicating that the U.S. government believes that you are no longer maintaining valid immigration status,” read one email obtained by the Daily Egyptian.

In the email, which is similar to emails sent to international students across the country, the reason given for termination is ambiguous, stating simply: “TERMINATION REASON: OTHERWISE FAILING TO MAINTAIN STATUS – Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their visa revoked. SEVIS record has been terminated.”

Rubio said in late March that student visas are being revoked because select international students came to the U.S. to study, but instead engaged in “activist movements that are disruptive and undermine universities,” through protests on campus, specifically those that “are supportive of movements that run counter to the foreign policy of the United States.” 

That includes those cases involving students at other universities who call for support of the Palestinian people and a ceasefire in Gaza, but is unclear if that conduct is what the U.S. considers to be “movements that run counter to the foreign policy of the United States.”

On Wednesday, April 9, the U.S. said it will begin monitoring immigrants’ social media pages for antisemitism.

Under this new directive, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will consider social media content that indicates an immigrant “endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests,” which may lead to visa revocation and the inability to be reinstated.

Tucker said that they are not notified when a SEVIS record is terminated or if a student’s visa status is in jeopardy. It is only when a student reaches out or if a government entity, such as ICE or SEVP, seeks clarification or assistance from the university that the school becomes “officially notified.” 

However, university officials can become aware of these terminated student records during manual checks of the SEVIS system. 

If a university official sees that a student’s SEVIS record has been terminated, the record shows that the visa revocation is due to an immigration status violation. No additional information or details for the termination reason are provided by the government in the system and students cannot check their SEVIS status themselves. 

It appears to be unclear to even the most expert legal scholars as to how a SEVIS termination and visa revocation actually coincide. The question of whether SEVIS terminations equal visa revocations is far from settled – and experts are pushing back.

Federal government representatives say that terminating students’ SEVIS records does not actually mean that those students’ legal status in the U.S. has changed, but immigration lawyers are skeptical of how that’s supposed to play out.

Legal confusion and growing challenges

The ACLU of Michigan is representing four international students from Wayne State University in a lawsuit against the Trump administration, asking that the court reinstate the students whose immigration statuses were terminated.

The suit asks the court for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction requiring the government to reinstate the students “so that they will be able to complete their studies and avoid facing the risk of detention and deportation,” said the ACLU in a press release.

“There is a difference between an F-1 student visa and an F-1 student status,” argues the nonprofit civil rights organization. “The F-1 student visa refers only to the document that grants permission for a noncitizen student to enter the United States, whereas F-1 student status, which is what is tracked in SEVIS, refers to that student’s formal immigration classification in the United States after they have entered. 

“The revocation of an F-1 visa does not constitute a failure to maintain F-1 student status and, therefore, cannot serve as a basis for termination of F-1 student status in SEVIS.”

A report from Inside Higher Ed highlights these key legal distinctions: Terminating a student’s SEVIS record does not automatically mean that their visa has been revoked. Zak Toomey, assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan, argued that SEVIS is merely a database and “does not control or even necessarily reflect” a student’s legal immigration status. Similarly, DHS official Andre Watson stated in an affidavit that neither the statute nor federal regulations give SEVP the authority to revoke nonimmigrant status by altering SEVIS records. That authority, he noted, belongs solely to the State Department.

While immigration experts agree that a terminated SEVIS record alone doesn’t constitute a visa revocation, they question why the government would void these records if it weren’t also revoking students’ legal status – especially since universities, not federal agencies, are the ones that typically initiate such terminations.

As it currently stands, the federal government is treating SEVIS terminations as grounds for visa revocation and visa revocation as grounds for SEVIS termination – and subsequently  deportation. In many cases, they are giving students just 15 days to leave the county or they will be tracked down by ICE and placed in detention centers.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian, former student and the head of the 2024 pro-Palestinian campus occupations at Columbia University, was detained by ICE agents on March 8.

The agents said they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his student visa. When informed that Khalil is a lawful permanent resident, they reportedly stated that his residency status would instead be revoked.

Khalil, born in 1995 to Palestinian parents in a refugee enclave in Damascus, Syria, is an Algerian citizen who first came to the United States in 2022 on a student visa to attend Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He later obtained a green card.

He was transferred to the LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana. On April 11, an immigration judge ruled him deportable under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, citing potential adverse foreign policy consequences. A federal court has since issued a stay on his deportation while it reviews the constitutionality of his arrest and detention.

Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents in Somerville, Massachusetts, on March 25. Her detention followed the co-authoring of an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights.

Despite a Massachusetts court order preventing her removal from the state, Öztürk was also transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana. Her legal team, supported by the ACLU, argued that her arrest violated her First Amendment rights. On Friday, April 18, a federal judge in Vermont ordered her return to New England by May 1, with a bail hearing set for May 9.

What we know about SIU

When it comes to the cases at SIU, it is unclear whether or not the students affected will be able to challenge their termination, nor is it clear what exactly they did wrong, how many of them there actually are, what they should do now or who will be next. 

SIUC Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Jeff Harmon told the DE on Thursday, April 17, that there had been “one visa revoked” and “two SEVIS hits,” but even those numbers, that process and their definitions are being contested nationwide.

SIU is aware of one Carbondale student with a revoked visa that has already returned to their home country. Sources close to the student, who asked to remain anonymous to prevent further jeopardization of their citizenship or their education, told the DE that they speculate it is for a previous misdemeanor from nearly 10 years ago. 

“One of the initial students will be able – it appears – to complete the degree at a distance. They’re at the (PhD) dissertation phase and fairly well along,” Tucker said in the Faculty Senate meeting.

“The other students at this time – I am not aware of those conversations. They start with the Center for International Education, with resources, etc. and then we’re involved on the academic side regarding what we can do to assist them with potential degree completions,” Tucker said.

Legal uncertainty: FERPA

Tucker cited FERPA — the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act — at the faculty senate meeting as to why the university will not disclose the exact number of students affected at SIU.

SIU professor William Freivogel said that while FERPA bars university disclosure of a student’s visa status unless the student gives written permission, the university should release anonymized data – without student names or identifying information.

FERPA is a federal law that was enacted in 1974 that safeguards the privacy of student education records in the U.S. 

FERPA applies to all schools that receive funding from the U.S. Department of Education and sets strict limitations on how schools can share student information, including with parents, employers or other institutions. 

At the Faculty Senate meeting, member Julia Rendleman questioned Tucker about transparency regarding the number of affected students: “I think the numbers would help with the other senators’ concerns and I just don’t understand how knowing the number affects student privacy. Like how can FERPA apply since it wouldn’t reveal any information?” Rendleman asked.

Tucker replied, “For us to give out a number and create cause and concern amongst our students – it doesn’t make any sense for us to do that because we are not receiving official notification as an institution.

“So I don’t want to comment on what we may be reading out of a system when we have not been officially notified. We do not confirm for the media, etc. on those individuals because it is their right to privacy,” Tucker said.

Freivogel, who specializes in media law, said that FERPA is no excuse for not releasing the numbers.

“The only thing protected by FERPA is personal, identifiable information,” Freivogel said.

Students and faculty at SIU say that, because there are no specific reasons from the federal government as to why these terminations and revocations are taking place, they want to know as much as possible. 

“It is crucial that the State of Illinois and Southern Illinois University Carbondale be transparent about what is going on,” said SIU Professor and Faculty Senate member Laurel Jean Fredrickson. 

“We have been given no names or descriptions of the circumstances of the students we have lost,” Fredrickson said. “Not being open will harm SIU in multiple ways – morally and financially. We owe it to students and faculty to show them that we protect everyone and that they are in our collective care. As Timothy Snyder warns: ‘Do not obey in advance.’”

Fredrickson, who is a Duke-educated historian of contemporary and modern art, said she considers this an extremely important issue. 

“I am concerned that deportations are being used/misused as spectacles for TV audiences,” Fredrickson said. “And as immoral/amoral demonstrations of the power of the extreme right – in order to please uninformed and vindictive constituencies and to rule by terror – the strategy beloved of authoritarian regimes who do not rule by consent.”

SIU professor George Boulukos, a Cambridge graduate whose expertise involves British and American literature, transatlantic culture, race, slave narrative, sentimentality and autobiography, shared a similar sentiment. 

“I am very concerned about the ongoing visa revocations on our campus,” Boulukos said. “Especially given the complete lack of transparency from the federal government.

“These actions represent a threat to freedom of speech, the mission of higher education, basic human rights and to the survival of many universities, especially those like SIU that lack huge endowments,” he continued. “I would like to hear more from the SIU administration about this issue.”

SIU professor Cinzia Padovani, who also asked questions at the Faculty Senate meeting, was an international student herself, and says that she can relate to the sense of uncertainty and precarity that international students face. 

“The situation is unbearable and unacceptable,” Padovani said. “We do not have information, from what I read, about the reasons why a certain student’s visa here at SIUC has been revoked. But what we have been witnessing on other campuses is extremely concerning. U.S. American universities risk isolating themselves from the rest of the world and we cannot afford to lose our appeal with international students and scholars.”

The fight for information: FOIA

According to Freivogel, this lack of transparency stemming from aberrant circumstances across the country is where the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, comes into play.

“The university should release the number of students affected by the visa revocations under FOIA,” Freivogel said. “FERPA is no excuse for not releasing the numbers.” 

Federal and state FOIA laws allow anyone to request records from U.S. and Illinois government agencies and public institutions. Designed to increase transparency, FOIA helps the public understand government decisions and operations.

To request information, individuals submit a written request describing the desired records. Federal agencies typically have 20 business days to respond by either providing the documents, explaining any redactions or denying the request with justification, while Illinois institutions have just five days. 

If denied, requesters have the right to appeal, and ultimately can challenge the decision in federal court. FOIA, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, is central to ensuring government accountability and transparency.

However, the FOIA process can be arduous, and requests are often rejected, further reinforcing the walls that prevent the public from obtaining information.

At the federal level, agencies such as ICE and DHS have consistently refused to provide clear justification or transparency regarding the criteria or rationale behind these terminations of international student status. 

Universities, amid their own battle to obtain information, also face the threat of losing federal funding and have found themselves in a compromised position, unable or unwilling to push aggressively for transparency. 

SIU has denied the DE’s recent attempts to obtain records related to visa revocations via FOIA. The university has cited both FERPA law and claimed “undue burden” due to the volume and effort it would take to obtain the records that the newspaper has requested.

While the DE acknowledges that some of the requests were certainly painstaking – the university said that one request returned 13,000 records – these denials highlight the tension between public accountability and institutional reluctance, adding another layer of complexity to the information battle.

On a phone call Wednesday with the DE, SIU’s FOIA officer, Holly Rick, explicitly expressed skepticism about the public’s interest in these issues, saying that she doesn’t think the public wants to know any of this information, further illustrating the institutional resistance to openness. 

A fundamental aspect of FOIA is that the request must be within the best interest of the public. DE website data shows that, within the past year, stories containing information about visa revocations at SIU are some of the newspaper’s most popular.

Rick told the DE that it seems as if the outlet is always looking for something suspicious that the university is doing and that the DE needs to report on more “good news,” which she admits is subjective and depends on how you look at it.  

In response to these comments, Catie Sheehan, the SIU System executive director of marketing and communications who represents the SIU System, told the DE that the university is committed to processing the FOIA requests that they receive to the fullest extent possible. 

“There are some legal restrictions on the information that can be released through FOIA, but we respect the role that FOIA plays in government transparency,” Sheehan said in the statement. 

In exploring other routes to obtain information regarding this developing situation, Freivogel said that there may be workarounds.

“If the university is concerned that a student is losing their visa without the government presenting adequate reasons, the university can ask the student if it can disclose the information,” Freivogel said. “Presumably the governor’s office, if concerned about the situation statewide, could try to collect information in the same way – asking students if they want to waive their FERPA rights so that people can get a better picture of what is happening statewide and nationwide.”

What’s next? 

During the April 15 Faculty Senate meeting, SIU professor and Faculty Senate member Lichang Wang expressed concerns regarding the increasingly anxious atmosphere within her chemistry labs. 

“International students from my program were so worried that they couldn’t focus on their research,” Wang said. “They want to know, not particular personal information, but the reasons as to why the visas are being revoked. So I promised I would ask: What can we do to ease their nervousness so that they can focus on their research?”

Tucker said that the Center for International Education has reached out to all international students, likely referring to the email SIU sent out earlier this month, which told students to carry their documents with them, exercise discretion at protests and to watch the things they say on social media, while also providing students with a list of resources that aim to assist them in some capacity. 

“They are having sessions weekly, where students can get together and share information,” Tucker said. “We’re really doing, I think, everything we can while also protecting their privacy. Unfortunately, that may not feel very good to these individuals in our current circumstances, but we are providing the resources that we have and making those available to these students.

“I just don’t know what to say because it’s so unpredictable, and I really sympathize and empathize with the individuals in this situation,” Tucker continued. “It’s hard to focus when you don’t know what’s going on. I wish we could provide additional clarity there. It’s not that we’re choosing not to – we just don’t have any. 

“No one is providing the institution information that we’re not sharing with you,” Tucker clarified.

Padavoni asked if there was a way for lawyers associated with SIU to help. “How can the students find, you know, real support?” she asked.

Tucker explained that when the student receives official notification, they typically reach out to the CIE for support. In cases where administrators see a terminated SEVIS record – which does not count as an official notification – they consider contacting the student directly to determine if they’ve been informed and then offer assistance accordingly.

“We don’t know what is going on because we’re not receiving official notifications. So when we see something in the system, we don’t know whether the student is aware of the situation at that time either.

“I know. It makes no sense,” Tucker said.

Another Faculty Senate member suggested legal assistance. “Can we offer some, you know, attorney services to the international students if they need to pursue the cases?”

“We cannot,” Tucker answered. “We can guide them to immigration lawyers like we work with at Dunn law firm, but it is the individual’s responsibility. Unfortunately, I know of one situation where the embassy has not helped the student either. They’ve told them it’s their individual responsibility on legal advice because the institution doesn’t give legal advice to individuals.”

Despite these challenges, Tucker stressed the university’s willingness to support affected students academically. 

“When we become aware of the situation, we work with the student to determine if there’s opportunities for degree completion,” Tucker said. “Once we become aware, we – certainly on the academic side – want to give them opportunities to complete their degrees at a distance.”

At the SIU System board meeting on Thursday, April 17, SIU Edwardsville officials announced an alternate tuition rate for degree-seeking, full-time international undergraduate students enrolled on an F-1 or J-1 visa.

Although not conceptualized amid the current climate on college campuses, this announcement comes at a pivotal time for international students. 

The new tuition rate for international students at SIUE will be equal to the in-state tuition rate. International students will qualify for this rate only after completing two semesters as a full-time student and they must earn passing grades. 

SIU Carbondale has not committed to a similar tuition change. 

An “all faculty” meeting in Carbondale is scheduled for April 22 at 5:30 p.m. on the first floor of Morris Library in the John C. Guyon Auditorium. 

This meeting was previously scheduled for April 2, but was canceled due to inclement weather.

According to a flyer announcing the meeting, the purpose is to address “policy changes under the new federal administration and their impact on SIU.” Multiple SIU administration and faculty members will be speaking, including Tucker, and there will be time for questions from the audience. 

SIU professor Jyotsna Kapur has urged the community to use this situation as a moment of unity and strength, advocating for collective resistance against actions threatening academic freedom and university autonomy. The upcoming meeting may provide critical clarity and direction, potentially guiding institutional and statewide responses moving forward.

“We have come past the time of Pastor Martin Beinmoller’s famous lines on the Nazi Holocaust, ‘first they came for …and I did not speak,’” Kapur said. “As people whose job it is to research and teach, we must recognize that we are at the receiving end of a strategy of shock and awe – and the only way forward is unity. I am hoping that each of us will speak up and insist that we are a university community that upholds the values of academic freedom, justice and democracy. The least we can do is dissent. Otherwise, we will find ourselves, if we are still here, in a university and town we no longer recognize. Fear eats away a community pretty quickly, if allowed to spread.”

Kapur said that SIU and Carbondale could own this time, calling for the university to take a stand.

“Always a little off the mainstream, a union town, one that is both international and grounded in the beauty of the Shawnee forest, an affordable and welcoming place for all kinds of creative explorations of a more sustainable way of life – we could be different,” she said.

As the April 22 all-faculty meeting approaches, many on campus hope it will offer a clearer direction forward – or at the very least, a sense of shared resolve. But with little information flowing from the federal government, SIU remains adrift in uncertainty, left to support its students while navigating choppy legal and political waters.

The DE will continue monitoring the ongoing battle for information and transparency concerning international SIU students and their citizenship status.

If anyone has information regarding visa revocation incidents or any other cases of immigration-related challenges faced by SIU students, please email [email protected] or fill out our Google Form here.

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