A woman holds a sign supporting Palestine in front of counterprotesters holding Israeli flags at a Students for Justice in Palestine rally Thursday at Arizona State University. (Photo by Kevinjonah Paguio/Cronkite News)
It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for Amir, a University of Arizona Ph.D. student who, in early April, was putting final touches on his resume to go on the job market and was preparing for his oral examinations.
But then, on April 10, he got an email from the university: “I am reaching out to you regarding your immigration record,” the email began. It was from the school staff member in charge of updating the online database for international students. They had discovered Amir’s status as a student had been terminated in a database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Please come in to discuss this at your earliest convenience,” the email concluded.
Reading on his laptop in his office, Amir was stunned. He was supposed to meet with his advisor to go over a research paper he had been finishing. Instead, he suddenly had to come to terms with a completely different future.
“I was so frustrated, I was so upset and overwhelmed that my initial reaction was that I didn’t know if I wanted to pursue fighting the case,” he told Arizona Luminaria.
Amir is a pseudonym. Because of fears of retaliation from the government and possible detention, Arizona Luminaria is not naming him, his country of origin, or his field of study. Arizona Luminaria corroborated his story with a faculty member at UA and an attorney who has represented Amir.
It is unclear exactly how many international students in Arizona or across the country have had their visas revoked, but it is at least 1,200. Arizona Luminaria reported earlier in April that at least 50 ASU students had their visas revoked. UA Faculty Senate chair Leila Hudson said on April 13 at least 10 UA students had also been targeted.
Despite getting immediate support from his faculty chair and the International Student Services at UA, Amir was still scared.
“The first two days I was lost completely. I couldn’t think at all,” Amir said. “The situation was so surreal, unexpected. I was concerned about my paper, my resume, my studies, my source of happiness.”
“My life was in the office, my life was being a teacher and a researcher.”
And then, with one email, all that changed.
“Now my life was reading the law to see if someone might come and detain me at my house.”
And then, abruptly, on April 25, ICE, said it would reinstate status for most of the foreign students who had had their visas revoked.
Amir got the news around noon that day. He was relieved, but said he wasn’t ready to celebrate.
“I need to think,” he said. “I need some time to think about what’s next.”
“The university continues to respect the privacy of our international students, faculty and scholars, and we encourage them to contact us with any questions they may have,” a UA spokesperson said.
An ASU spokesperson said none of the school’s students have been deported by the federal government.
“Federal authorities have revoked visas for some of the university’s students. ASU students are being reinstated as part of the latest development,” a spokesperson for ASU told Arizona Luminaria via email April 25. “With more than 17,000 international students, ASU has one of the largest international student communities in the country.”
“I didn’t even tell my mom”
After he filed a lawsuit against the federal government for what his attorneys were claiming was unlawful termination of his student status and revoking his visa, Amir was nervous enough he would be arrested by immigration officials that he left his apartment and began sleeping on a friend’s couch.
Amir has been studying in the United States since 2019. He has obtained two graduate degrees and was close to obtaining his doctorate. He was also a graduate associate, teaching classes and doing research in exchange for tuition relief and a stipend.
When he got the email from the university, his employment had already been terminated immediately because of his revoked status. That meant he was suddenly on the hook for tuition and needed to find money for rent, food, and other basics.
Amir said it took a couple days for the gravity of the situation to sink in.
“I didn’t even tell my parents, especially my mom,” he said.
He said he hasn’t seen his family in four years, and has never met his young niece, who is living in his country of origin. He said his parents and wider family saw in him “a bright future,” and he was scared for them to “see it in jeopardy.”
“I would say I was more sad about it for my mom than myself,” Amir said.
Jesse Evans-Schroeder, an attorney with Green Evans-Schroeder, a Tucson-based firm that has been representing international students, called the situation “absolutely heartbreaking.”
Evans-Schroeder said she’s spoken to both students and parents who have sacrificed a lot to have the chance to study in the United States. She said there is “absolute terror the money and effort they’ve spent will go to waste.”
“There’s terror about being detained by ICE,” Evans-Schroeder added.
Since his status has been reinstated, department members told Arizona Luminaria they hope he can work again soon.
Back to school — for now
Now that Amir is allowed to study again, that’s what he plans to do, but he also said he’s realized something.
“Coming to a country where human rights are appreciated, the whole world thinks about the U.S. in such a prestigious way, but what’s happened is obviously against the law. You don’t expect the U.S. government to start something without knowing if it’s illegal, unless they just don’t care.”
“This for me was racist, more than anything,” Amir said, referencing the understanding that a lot of the known student revocations have been for students from China, India, or Muslim-majority countries. “It’s that they just don’t like you.”
Evans-Schroeder said that, given continued uncertainty, their firm will not give up the lawsuits.
“The litigation will continue, as we need assurances that they will not now try to detain these students and charge them with removal,” she said.
Amir said that he’s hoping he’ll be able to finish his studies, obtain his doctorate, and go on the job market. But he’s now considering the need of looking for work outside of the United States.
“I just need to be by myself right now. I just need to think things through. There was this huge downfall in the trajectory of my life, and I need to see myself up or around.”
He added: “Some of the opportunities are compromised.”
This article first appeared on AZ Luminaria and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.