With ICE patrolling the streets of Chicago and violently detaining people, it is a scary time to live in America without full citizenship status. On campus, international students feel the weight of this threat.
STUDENT A: Maybe we’re too young, but I feel like ever since I was one year old, the United States has always stood for the complete opposite of what’s happening today.
Student A, an international student from the Middle East, chose to remain anonymous due to concerns about her student visa being revoked. Her voice has been modulated as an added form of anonymity.
STUDENT A: It’s just funny how the United States is becoming what it says that it’s trying to defy in regions like the Middle East.
In March, Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests. A few weeks later, Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk had her visa revoked due to an op-ed she co-authored that criticized Tufts response to the war in Gaza.
Events like these leave many international students afraid to speak out about politics. Student B, another international student from the Middle East who requested his voice be modulated, expressed this fear.
STUDENT B: Obviously it was shocking at first. To see the extent that they can go to and to know that this could not be the extent, and they can go even further and we just don’t know. It was crazy and scary and I never imagined that this would be the case.
As a result, Evanston immigration attorney Alen Takhsh advises his clients to remain cautious when expressing political opinions.
ALEN TAKHSH: I would characterize the current geopolitics as one that is creating a lot of uncertainty, a lot of anxiety, and F1 visa holders are walking on thin ice. If they are deemed to be associated with a terrorist organization or an organization that has some national security concerns, the state department, as we have seen, can attempt to revoke their visa. Everything that they have done along their career, everything they have studied for, achieved, goes out the window simply because of that designation. So for that reason, when I tell clients to please be careful, those are not hollow words. They are based on what I see, and what is happening on the ground everyday across the United States.
Many international students follow this guidance. Here’s Student B and Student A again.
STUDENT B: I’ve been feeling comfortable speaking about some stuff, but not everything, obviously. I feel like as time goes on, the circle of topics of what I’m willing to discuss is just getting smaller and shrinking and shrinking and shrinking.
STUDENT A: Yeah, for me it’s the further the issue from the United States’ attention, the more likely I am to talk about it. So I would talk about politics from home on my socials or anything like that. Before the deportations, I would’ve talked about ICE, but the second they started, I was silent completely about an issue that would most probably concern me at first.
Professor Heather Hendershot is teaching a class on free speech this quarter. She says that some First Amendment rights are still intact…
HEATHER HENDERSHOT: All of us can technically still go out in the street with a bullhorn and say what we want to say.
But, individuals must consider the risk of exercising those rights. According to Professor Hendershot, these are uncertain times.
HENDERSHOT: How can graduate students from other countries who don’t have citizenship status be detained? And legally, they can’t be. Kidnapping those people in the street for signing an editorial or saying something at a rally is not legal. So, asking ‘How can that happen?’ — it happened because might makes right, is the thinking. It’s not happening within the confines of what the law allows.
International students are left fearing the consequences of this ‘might makes right’ position including Student A and Student B
STUDENT A: It’s become an inside joke. That’s definitely a very present fear in the international community that we can’t say anything that’s actually challenging to the current propaganda of the extreme righists.
STUDENT B: Yeah, but at the same time, I feel like with a lot of international students, this genuinely does not affect them in any shape or form. They’re able to just go about their lives normally. But depending on where you’re from, what’s happening can really affect you. It’s not about your status as an international student as much as its about that in relation to where you come from. If you don’t care and choose to ignore it, it won’t affect you. But then if you’re from other parts of the world, you can’t really ignore it because its affecting you directly on a daily basis.
If you do end up detained, Takhsh says…
TAKHSH: Not all is lost. In other words, there are ways within which you can still fight what you believe to be an unjust determination. And so, keep calm, do your due diligence, go to get qualified guidance, and I will also say, make sure you get a second or a third opinion.
Regarding the future of free speech in the US, Professor Hendershot says …
HENDERSHOT: It’s hard to rebuild things when you break them, and the level of things being broken is so broad right now.
But she believes there are ways to push back against the current administration, regardless of a student’s citizenship status.
HENDERSHOT: It’s a good time for activism and speaking out, which I realize not everyone is comfortable doing for various complicated and good reasons. But if you can’t speak up, you can read books, you can read journalism. You can learn and keep informed about what’s going on. And simply not give up hope.
For WNUR News, Sahana Unni