TOI Correspondent from Washington: Students from India typically embrace a lifestyle in US that is said to revolve around “apartment and department.” Older graduate students may be a little more adventurous, shuttling between “Advisor and Budweiser.” The rare ones who are audacious enough to dabble in political activism got a salutary warning this week with the Trump administration revoking the student visa of a Chinese scholar in California for participating in pro-Palestinian rallies on the campus.
The State Department did not name the student but social media posts identified her as Liu Lijun, a grad student at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Liu came to prominence after her arrest in May 2024 following campus unrest tied to the Israel-Hamas war after the Palestinian extremist group attacked Israel. While some reports characterized her as an organizer leading the protests against Israel’s retaliation, others said she was only a participant whose arrest pitched her into the limelight.
Speculation about foreign student visa revocations has been in the air for weeks after President Trump signed an executive order on January 29 aimed at combating what the administration described as rising antisemitism and harassment of Jewish students on college campuses. The order specifically targeted international students involved in pro-Palestinian activism, authorizing the Departments of Education, State, and Homeland Security to monitor and report activities by foreign students and staff that could lead to investigations and, if warranted, visa revocations or deportations.
Liu Lijun’s visa revocation is said to be the first of its kind in recent times and comes on the heels of the Trump administration canning $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University for failing to fight anti-semitism on campus. Nine other universities, including George Washington University; Harvard University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Southern California, are under scrutiny, with Justice Department officials visiting them to look into political activism by foreign students, which more extreme MAGA elements characterize as support for terrorists.
Thousands of students from India are studying at these campuses, all located in Democrat-run states and liberal enclaves in the US. India is now the leading country of origin for international students in the U.S., with 331,602 Indian students enrolled in American higher education institutions, a 23% increase from the prior year when China was the top country.
Trump himself has railed against “woke” and ‘liberal” activism on campuses, which he says are dominated by the “radical left” or “Marxist” influences that prioritize gender identity discussions and critical race theory at the expense of traditional American principles. After he delivered a $ 400million blow to Columbia this week, the White House trolled the university, posting a photo of Trump with the message “Shalom Columbia!”
Most universities, including Columbia, are quickly falling in line even as civil liberties activists are raging about the war on free speech and peaceful protests which have long been the hallmark of American campuses. But MAGA hardliners argue that right cannot be exercised by foreign students, least of all those from China, whose government would not allow protests by its own citizens.
Not everyone is convinced about the Trump dispensation’s stance on anti-semitism though. “Revoking federal grants to Columbia University isn’t about combating anti-Semitism; it’s about the Trump administration’s war on education and science. If the Trump administration were as serious about anti-Semitism … they would not have filled their ranks with unapologetic antisemites,” Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler said.
“Today’s announcement does nothing to keep Jewish students safe and sends a chilling message that universities must align with the MAGA agenda or face financial ruin,” he added.