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A ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ attorney who is consulting with several ASU international students said he’s aware of 12 who have had their visas revoked already, including one master’s student who is now being held in an immigration detention center in Florence, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

The University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, meanwhile, refused to say whether any UA students’ visas have been revoked. Spokesperson Mitch Zak said it is a “university decision not to disclose this information.â€�

The ASU student visa revocations come amidst the Trump administration’s push for mass deportations and as international students across the nation — even some with legal permanent residency, known as green cards — have been targeted by federal immigration authorities, in some cases due to pro-Palestinian political speech or protest activity.

In a Thursday email, an ASU spokesman said he could not give an update on how many ASU student visas have been revoked, after confirming at least eight revocations, which were first reported by ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Luminaria.

“Due to the complexity of the visa process, including appeals and other procedures, exact numbers at any given moment are not available,� the statement said. “These revocations are unrelated to campus protests; they stem from what appear to be, in most cases, various legal infractions. ASU remains committed to fully supporting all affected international students in completing their degree programs.�

Not only were the ASU students’ visas revoked by the U.S. State Department, but their status as foreign students in a federal database was also swiftly terminated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, an unusual move that makes the students vulnerable to detention and deportation, said ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ immigration attorney Matt Green, who is formally representing one of the ASU students and has consulted, or is planning consultations, with the others.

Previously, according to State Department guidance, even if a student’s visa was revoked for a minor crime, such as underage drinking, they could maintain their status as foreign students and complete their studies, as long as that status remained valid in the “Student and Exchange Visitor Information System� database, known as SEVIS, Green told the Star.

“The United States government has never, at least for 20 years, has never taken this approach toward international students and has never made these legal arguments that are underlying its approach and this new policy,� Green said. “For that reason it has never been tested in the courts.�

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that the State Department has revoked more than 300 visas nationwide, primarily student visas.

In a Thursday email to the Star, the State Department declined to provide a more specific number, or say how many international students attending ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ universities have had their student visas revoked, citing “privacy considerationsâ€� and “visa confidentiality.â€�

“The United States has zero tolerance for non-citizens who violate U.S. laws. Those who break the law, including students, may face visa refusal, visa revocation, and/or deportation,� a State Department spokesperson said, calling the number of revocations “dynamic.�

ASU students with revoked visas now face a tough decision, Green told the Star: either leave the U.S. voluntarily, or risk being detained while fighting for the right to finish their education.

“Most of them probably have very legitimate legal arguments, and they may prevail on those if they choose to fight their cases,� he said. But, “they may have to make the difficult decision, if they want to challenge this, to potentially be detained while this happens, for a very long period of time.�

Even if they’re not detained, they wouldn’t be able to continue with their studies or work while pursuing a legal challenge, as they’d be “in a state of legal limbo that does not allow them to proceed with their lives,� he said.

“We’re really just trying to analyze the legal basis for this (the revocations) and come up with potential legal arguments against it very quickly, while also trying to properly advise our clients, who are in a state of panic,� Green said. “We do not yet have precise answers for them.�

None of the ASU students’ visa revocations seemed to have been triggered by political speech or protest, Green said. All the students Green has consulted with are from the Middle East or India, he said.

Green said the ASU students he’s consulted with either had no criminal history or only minor records that were already known to the U.S. government and that wouldn’t typically cause a visa to be revoked or trigger a deportation. For example, one student had a conviction for underage drinking, and another had a record for driving without a valid license in another state, he said. In ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, that’s only a civil infraction, he said.

Students who commit serious crimes are deportable, because those crimes trigger criminal grounds of removability, but Green said that “none of the criminal history of any of these students rises to that level. ... Most of the other criminal history was old and known by the Department of State when these students went back and applied for new visas.�

One of the ASU students had a DUI conviction nearly 10 years ago, Green said. But the student had previously resolved the DUI, returned to his home country and re-applied for a student visa, which has been renewed multiple times since, he said.

In notices the ASU students received from U.S. Consulates abroad, advising them of their visa revocations, the federal government claimed the revocations were prompted by the discovery of “new information� about the students, Green said.

That’s “disingenuous,� Green said, as many of the students say their prior record was known to the U.S. State Department and hadn’t prevented them from renewing or receiving their student visas before.

Green said the U.S. Consulate notices encouraged the students to self deport, and provided the link to the phone application previously known as CBP One, but which the Trump administration has rebranded as “CBP GO.� The app now allows non-citizens to notify the government they are departing the U.S.

Since taking office Jan. 20, President Donald Trump has signed numerous executive orders on immigration, including what he calls “combating anti-Semitism“ by deporting non-citizen students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, and “enhanced vetting,� through stricter evaluation of visa applicants and of visa holders already in the U.S.

has reported that since March, “federal immigration officials have revoked student visas, raided dorm rooms, arrested green-card holders and threatened to deport international students who participated in campus protests.�

In recent weeks, immigration agents have visited universities, including , , and , to arrest and potentially deport non-citizen international students who took part in the pro-Palestinian protests that broke out on campuses across the country last year during the height of the Israel-Gaza war.

UA won’t comment

Zak, the UA spokesperson, refused Thursday, “out of respect for our students and their privacy,� to say whether any international students at the UA had their student visas revoked.

Though the Star’s query was only about the number of UA students affected, and not about specific students, Zak said the university didn’t see “a benefit� to its students or its scholars in “confirming one way or the other whether or not we have had student visas revoked.�

“We feel like that’s personal to them … (and) this is a very high-visibility issue. It’s creating a lot of consternation across the country,� Zak told the Star.

Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, schools are generally prohibited from “disclosing personally identifiable information from a student’s education records without the student’s consent.� That includes the student’s name, Social Security number and other indirect identifiers such as date of birth.

The act would not prevent the university from saying whether any student visas have been revoked and providing a number on that. The UA’s stance is different than those of ASU, the University of Colorado and Colorado State University, for instance, which have the number of student visas revoked.

Student leaders and international students at the UA have also not heard from the administration internally on if there were any student visas revoked so far.

When asked if international students would internally be given a number on visa revocations, Zak didn't say yes and would only say, “University staff would handle that appropriately" without explaining how.

Earlier this week, the UA sent out a notice to its international students, faculty and scholars, asking them to keep their passports; I-94s, which are issued to non-immigrant visitors entering the U.S.; and proof of statuses on them at all times. It also advised them to be aware that immigration officials can legally inspect their devices and social media.

Governor ‘concerned’

Responding to the Star’s inquiry about the ASU visa revocations, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office said in a Thursday email that she “is concerned about the uncertainty and chaos caused by the federal government, not just for the students affected, but also for their families, peers, and the broader academic community. These actions are creating an environment of fear and intimidation when our universities should be places of learning.�

Asked whether the UA should disclose if any student visas have been revoked, Hobbs spokesperson Liliana Soto said in a text message, “We defer to the university on that.�

A spokesperson for the office of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Attorney General Kris Mayes also declined to weigh in on that question, citing the office’s role as legal counsel for the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Board of Regents, which governs ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s public university system.

ASU has 15,000 international students from 157 countries, the university says.

Nationwide, 1.1 million international students contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2023-2024 academic year and supported more than 378,000 jobs, according to an analysis from NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a nonprofit organization dedicated to international education and exchange.

DHS’ rapid termination of their foreign-student status is “unprecedented,â€� said Mo Goldman, a ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ immigration attorney. As international students increasingly come under attack, universities whose budgets rely on those populations are in a tough spot, he said.

“These schools need them, because it helps them offset all the costs for in-state (tuition) and everything else,� he said.

Most of the ASU students with revoked visas with whom Green has consulted are pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math, he said.

“These are among the brightest of the students in the United States,� Green said. “This was previously unthinkable, that the U.S. government would take this approach.�