Seven Virginia Tech students and two alumni at the state university in Blacksburg have had their visas revoked.
President Tim Sands said in a letter posted Thursday morning that records for nine people, including three undergraduate students, had been terminated in the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.
The letter noted that when this occurs, it “generally means they must leave the U.S. immediately.”
“We do not know why the terminations occurred and are seeking additional information from the State Department and Department of Homeland Security,” Sands wrote. “At this time, we are not aware of any immigration actions affecting Virginia Tech faculty or staff.”
The names of the students and alumni whose visas have been revoked have not yet been released, nor has information on the reasons for the revocations. University spokesperson Mark Owczarski said by email Thursday afternoon that he couldn’t comment on how two alumni ended up being terminated from SEVIS because that information could potentially be used to identify those people. Federal law generally prohibits the release of student records or other identifying information without the student’s permission.
Virginia Tech is among a growing list of colleges and universities where international student visas have been revoked by the State Department. As of April 10, online publication Inside Higher Ed had counted more than 600 students attending at least 100 institutions who have had their visas terminated.
On April 4, the University of Virginia said that one student visa had been canceled.
Virginia Tech’s Cranwell International Center has recommended that international students on F-1 student visas or J-1 exchange visitor visas “reconsider all non-essential travel” due to rapidly changing federal policies.
Sands’ letter noted that Tech will host an online information session about immigration issues on April 18.
Although no information was available Thursday about why the nine people at Virginia Tech were targeted, Virginia’s two Democratic senators laid the blame squarely at the feet of the Trump administration.
“International student visas help draw some of the world’s brightest minds to our nation, strengthening American research and innovation. It’s a shame to see the Trump administration use this important tool to squash free speech and target young people who look like they may disagree with his policies,” Sen. Mark Warner said in a statement Thursday.
Sen. Tim Kaine said he planned to have his office reach out to Virginia Tech to learn more about the developing situation.
“I am very troubled that there seems to be a trend going of revoking people’s visas based upon their opinions about political issues,” he said during a press availability on Thursday. “It seems that the [Trump administration] is most focused on those that have opinions on Israel-Gaza. They may or may not be opinions that I agree with but no one should be punished with a visa revocation because of opinions they express.”
He added that if the Trump administration is basing visa revocations on behavior rather than opinions expressed by the visa holders, those revocations should be determined by due process court proceedings.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday pledged to continue to revoke visas held by students he called “lunatics,” according to reporting by CNN.
Rubio has claimed that the holders of those visas sought entrance into the U.S. “not just to study but to participate in movements that vandalize universities, harass students, take over buildings and cause chaos,” according to Inside Higher Ed.
Eighty-two people were arrested by Virginia Tech police in late April 2024 following a three-day pro-Palestinian encampment on the lawn of the Graduate Life Center. About two-thirds of the people arrested were students at Tech.
The encampment had begun on a Friday afternoon and stretched until late Sunday, April 28, during a time when similar protests had taken place at college campuses across Virginia and the country to oppose the ongoing war in Gaza.
During a wide-ranging conversation that Sands held last week with campus representatives, a graduate student raised the question of how student leaders could encourage people to be politically active on campus when threats of federal funding cuts or immigration actions hang over their heads.
Sands acknowledged the challenge.
“I think it’s really hard for international students right now to put themselves in that position — I 100% get that,” he said. “If I were an international student right now, I would probably be keeping my head down.”
