Legal status has been restored for six De Anza College and three Foothill College international students during a sweeping reinstatement effort by the Trump administration.
Foothill-De Anza Community College District Chancellor Lee Lambert confirmed that “all prior terminations of F-1 visa records” were reversed in an email sent to district employees on Monday, April 28.
De Anza President Omar Torres said that three De Anza students returned to their home countries after their legal status was initially deactivated, though none were formally deported.
The thousands of reversals to visa records are subject to change. According to a New York Times article published April 25, a Department of Homeland Security official said, “the students whose legal status was restored on Friday could still very well have it terminated in the future, along with their visas.”
These terminations were discovered by International Student Programs, through routine checks to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System — the database that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DHS uses to monitor international visas — from April 4-10.
Four students’ records were restored by April 25, and the remaining five by April 28.
Foothill-De Anza was among 86 institutions that signed an amicus brief filed in April through the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, supporting legal action to challenge visa revocations and detentions.
In April, the Board of Trustees designated FHDA a sanctuary district, a symbolic title signaling solidarity with undocumented, international and other at-risk students.
Although no official connection has been made between FHDA’s sanctuary status and visa revocations within the district, the Trump administration signed an executive order on Monday to bolster federal action against sanctuary districts.
The district has not shared specific reasons for the initial record terminations, but Torres said in an email after the terminations that explanations given by the federal government were “vague.”
“Ninety-nine percent of my international friends, they just come here to study,” said Austin Wong, 20, business major from Hong Kong. “Go home, study, go home. De Anza. Home. De Anza. Home. Walmart.”
Students across the U.S. have reported having their visas revoked after a history of pro-Palestinian activism or offenses, such as DUIs and prior arrests, according to NBC.
“We don’t know where the boundary is. Like if I’m jaywalking, am I going to get my visa revoked, or am I going to get deported?” Wong said.
Faculty Association President and English instructor Tim Shively said he is coordinating a petition in support of international students with the San Mateo Community College District.
The petition makes six demands of California community college administrators, including to seek legal action and ensure that compromised students remain enrolled in their classes.
“We want to make sure that students are protected and taken care of to the extent that we can take care of them,” Shively said. “There is a correlative movement of districts in the community college system in California linking together.”
As of May 3, the petition had over 300 signatures.
