HONOLULU (KHON2) — In recent weeks, the federal government has revoked thousands of international student visas across the country including several from the University of Hawaii at Manoa according to UH Chief Global Officer Brent White.
“It certainly is a concern among our international students,” White said. “We have less than five, so a few students in the UH system. And only a couple of those as current students.”
That’s out of the 1,700 international students enrolled at UH.
International students must have a student visa to attend school in the U.S., with their student records and status kept in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS.
According to White, visa termination usually happens when a student doesn’t take a full course load as required or if they withdraw from their program.
“But in the cases we’re seeing the government go in and terminate SEVIS records for often unknown reasons,” he explained. “But sometimes traffic violations parking tickets. Other types of very minor arrests that would not typically result in a revocation of a student visa, much less the termination of the record.”
Many students at UH said it’s unfair.
“It kind of almost angers me and it’s really confusing,” student Johnathan Escasa said.
Fellow UH student Tai Lee shared similar sentiments.
“It’s very upsetting that students who had the ability to come here are getting their ability now revoked,” Lee said.
White said they are doing everything in their power to support the students whose visas have been revoked.
“We meet with them personally, understand their particular circumstance and conduct them with counsel in town to represent them as appropriate,” White said.
Several lawsuits have been filed on the mainland with courts ordering the government to reinstate visas or student status.
For now, White said the federal government has paused further visa revocations.
But Congresswoman Jill Tokuda said it’s already creating unease among international students.
“When I asked them do you feel safe coming home or coming to the United States to study, no one said, ‘Yes,’” Tokuda explained. “And every student I spoke to from another country at first were very hesitant to reply but they said right now they don’t think its safe for them to come to the United States. And that’s a really sad statement.”