Several hundred people, including Harvard University students and staff, attended a rally Saturday calling on the school to push back against the Trump administration's crackdown on student visas and its threat to withhold federal funding if the school doesn't slash DEI initiatives.
The event in Harvard Square was held by the Cambridge City Council.
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WATCH HERESchool officials at several local colleges and universities, including Harvard, have said they were not informed of international students' visas being revoked by federal authorities, nor given a reason why the student visas were being revoked.
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SIGN UP Administrators say they're only learning of this by monitoring an online government database known as SEVIS, or the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. Dozens of students have been impacted, including 12 associated with Harvard University; 13 students at UMass Amherst; another 12 students at Clark University in Worcester; and four more students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
School officials say they have notified students when they see their status change in the online portal that is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, and then refer them to legal help.
A Boston immigration attorney says in some cases, these students are able to point to an event that may have led to their visa being cancelled, but in other cases, they're totally in the dark as to why. This is causing a lot of uncertainty for international students trying to get their degree in the Bay State.
"They don't understand why they've been notified by the university that their registration has been terminated. And there's certainly this culture of concern and fear on what to do next," Matthew Maiona said.
"The decision really has to be up to the student as to what's next. Do I want to wait and see if I'm placed into immigration court proceedings which is the normal process? or do I want to leave now and try to resolve this with the consulate and see if they'll let me come back and finish my studies," Maiona added.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration, amid an investigation into campus antisemitism, demanded that Harvard ban face masks and clarify campus speech policies among other conditions for continuing to receive the almost $9 billion in grants and contracts it gets.
