Issues: Is the American Dream Fading for Indian Students?
“A fear has crept in . . . I keep thinking, what if I’m next? What if I said or did something years ago without even realizing, and am pulled up by the authorities because of that?”
Preeti*, an Indian woman who finished her course in the U.S. last year and is now working in the country, has been extremely anxious because of the things happening around her. Every day she hears of immigrants just like her being hauled up by the authorities—sometimes for minor infractions, and for no reason at all at other times.
Her fears are not unfounded.
The possible fate that haunts Preeti befell 25-year-old Nakul*, a student and Hyderabad resident whose SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) record was terminated on April 4 this year. It all started with an argument between Nakul and his girlfriend in September 2023, when the former was pursuing a degree in computer science at a reputed university in Fairfax, Virginia. The couple were arguing about an issue that Nakul says he can’t even remember about now. But he says that it was just a regular fight—the kind which takes place in every relationship. What shocked him, however, was that it brought a police official to his doorstep.
“I think a neighbor raised a noise complaint and called the police,” he said while speaking to The Quint. “Even my roommates were at home and none of us could understand anything.” The officer then came into the house and started inquiring about the reason behind the noise. “I was just hugging my girlfriend and crying. We were just emotional, but not angry with each other,” Nakul says. “But the policeman didn’t understand what was going on.”
The officer, unconvinced by what the couple were telling him, and further confused because they were speaking to each other in Telugu, placed Nakul under arrest under the impression that he was “misbehaving” with his girlfriend. Despite repeated pleas by him and everybody else in the house, including his girlfriend, Nakul was taken to a detention center, where he was questioned by a team of officers. “It was a strange experience ... they didn’t torture me or anything, but I felt like I was being viewed through a different lens, like they would prefer that I didn’t live in their country.”
About two-three hours later when he was allowed to make a phone call, he called his girlfriend and told her where he was. While he was let out on bail with her help, the charges of “battery” and “abduction by force” were slapped upon him. The very next day, the couple approached an attorney together, fearful of what an arrest may mean for Nakul’s education in the U.S. and his future in general. “The attorney reassured us that our fears were unwarranted. He said that once a judge observes that both my girlfriend and I are supporting each other, he will understand that the charges against me are baseless,” Nakul said. The attorney further informed him that his student visa was still valid even after the arrest.
When the case was taken up in court, it resulted in a Nolle prosequi judgment (dismissal of charges) against Nakul. The court documents, which have been reviewed by The Quint, state that the evidence was reviewed and the defendant was found “not guilty.” Putting the episode behind him, Nakul breathed a sigh of relief. With the case against him expunged, he graduated from university in May 2024, after which he got approval for his Optional Practical Training (OPT) and started working in the U.S.—unaware that his ordeal was far from over and would drastically alter his life a year later.
With a year’s work experience under his belt, Nakul applied for his STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) OPT, a 24-month work extension for F-1 students with a STEM degree. However, he got a mail from the university saying that his SEVIS record has been “terminated” by the U.S. government based on a “criminal record.” In the U.S., immigrants continue to remain under the SEVIS system even after they graduate, until they get an H-1B visa. As Nakul was still on an F-1 visa, he applied for the STEM OPT through his university.
Several people whose visas have been revoked have been filing cases as John or Jane Doe due to fears of being hauled up. Nakul was shocked when his university informed him of the termination of his SEVIS record. The next day he went to his university to find out what was going on. “I told them about my case, and added that I hadn’t been convicted of any crime. I even said that I have legal documents to prove that the case against me was expunged, and that I wasn’t involved in any other matter—not even a toll violation or a speeding ticket.”
However, the university authorities told him it was all the U.S. government’s doing and that their hands were tied in the matter. They also informed him that his termination did not include the possibility of a grace period for departure. Completely in a fix about what to do next, he spoke to some of his seniors, who advised him to leave the country at the earliest. “They said it’s better than being arrested by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents and landing up in a detention center. Moreover, I didn’t have the resources to fight a case in court,” Nakul said.
Heeding the advice of his seniors, Nakul left the U.S. on April 12 and flew to Hyderabad, where he is currently living with his parents. While Nakul has started applying for jobs in India, he plans to apply for an H-1B visa and return to the U.S. The reason behind this decision is compulsion: he needs to earn back the money he had taken as a loan. “I’m left with a lot of debt,” Nakul says. “I had taken a loan of $55,000 from a bank; now with the accrued interest, I owe around $75,000.” Nakul hails from a middle-class family. His father is a police officer and his mother a homemaker. Unless he succeeds in going back to the U.S. to earn a living, he says, paying back the loan amount will be next to impossible.
Meanwhile, several opponents of mass visa revocations have argued that the Catch and Revoke program, which was announced by the Trump administration in March to cancel the visas of those participating in activities supporting Hamas or criticizing Israel, is now being used as a “vindictive” tool to punish people for even the slightest offences, and sometimes for no offence at all.
“The government has started overcriticizing the visa applications of all categories,” Ravneit K. Brar told The Quint. She is an immigration lawyer and member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), an institution which has been at the forefront of fighting arbitrary revocations of student visas in the U.S. “The broad target is elimination—how do we eliminate the visas of even those who have minor infractions on their record, which are not significant in any sense.”
According to a report by the AILA in April, of the 327 visa cancellations that they have tracked of late, half have been those of Indians. Brar says that the visa of one of the Indians has been revoked due to driving under the influence, but without a conviction. The others are for petty reasons, such as getting a parking ticket on the university campus, starting their job a day earlier than what is mentioned on their OPT, or dropping a semester—which is a completely acceptable practice in the U.S. She further said that the U.S. government has been targeting those universities which they feel have more infractions or where people participate in protests more than other universities.
“A lot of students just left, thinking that they will be put in jail or will be hauled or shamed. Once a student leaves, that’s it—you have to then get a new F-1 visa and start the process all over again.” Brar further added that due to fears of retribution or harassment, students and professionals whose visas have been revoked have been filing cases in the name of Jane/John Doe. “These people fear that they’ll be picked up by ICE and deported if they reveal their identities.” This practice has, however, met with reprisals from government lawyers, who have demanded to know the names of the litigants so that they can provide particulars regarding the person concerned, and reasons for the revocation of their visas. The lawyers of the litigants, however, argue that they will provide the names of their clients only if it is in confidence and with an assurance that no retributory action will be taken by the government against them.
Brar told The Quint that no South Asian lawyers are fighting cases of students as it gives the perception of bias. “We don’t want to go in front of a judge and have our cases canceled or not heard properly just because of our South Asian identity. Moreover, the AILA has been choosing those lawyers to represent students who have been litigating in federal court for many years, who are actually aware of the good and bad judges, and can make some difference with their face value.”
Meanwhile, lawyers have been filing for TROs (Temporary Restraining Orders) on visa cancellations—which, if accepted, can stay the U.S. government’s hand in arresting or deporting a particular student/professional whose visa has been revoked. However, even in this regard, the states are divided. For instance, judges in Georgia have been issuing favorable verdicts for students, despite the fact that it is a state ruled by Republicans and reclaimed by Trump in the 2024 election. On 20 April, a federal judge in Georgia issued a TRO ordering the reinstatement of SEVIS records of 133 international students, including Indians, whose visas had been revoked.
Students in several other states, such as Indiana, Texas, and Colorado, however, haven’t been so lucky—with just a few plaintiffs getting verdicts in their favor. “What students have been doing now is flocking to havens where favorable judgments are being given,” says Bhumireddy Sai Srinivas Reddy, a legal assistant at an immigration law firm in the U.S. “A lot of students are going to Georgia to file their cases, for instance.” Reddy says that the judgments issued by courts denying TROs are extremely arbitrary, given that even if a student was not ultimately found guilty, merely being involved in a criminal investigation or having their fingerprints taken by the police has led to SEVIS termination—regardless of the final outcome. “We live in the same country, under the exact same law, and yet there is a different judgment in different states on the exact same matter.”
Meanwhile, several immigrant students who have thus far been exempted from their SEVIS terminations say that instead of being joyful that they can continue to live in the U.S., they face constant fears that they might be the government’s next target. “I have put away my summer travel plans because I feel I might not be allowed back into the country,” says Atul*, a New York-based student. “Even when it comes to domestic flights there’s a sense of fear... what if they check your passport?” he told The Quint. As a rule, Atul says, he now shows his driving license or any other state ID as identity proof at the airport instead of his passport.
Preeti*, an Indian woman based in New York who graduated in journalism this year, says that she consulted her lawyer regarding the do’s and don’ts while applying for her O1 visa, which can eventually lead to permanent residency in the U.S. “My lawyer advised me to have some of my bylines removed from my work portfolio, particularly the stories I did on the protests in Columbia University last year,” she says.
Tarun*, an Indian student studying in a Washington university, says that he needs to stay in the U.S. for the next few years to be able to pay back the education loan he took. To maximize the possibility of this, he has been scrolling through his X history and deleting posts which he feels might be viewed as even mildly objectionable by the government. “Immigrants like us pay a lot of money to come here. Currency-wise, since the U.S. is on a much higher level than India, getting the return on your investment becomes all the more important. OPT is important for a student because if you’re in the U.S. you’d want to work here for some time as well.”
Meanwhile, on April 25, the U.S. government said they were offering a “temporary reprieve” by restoring the SEVIS records of several international students, thus allowing them to live in the U.S. legally for the time being. However, a senior Department of Homeland Security official, who spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity, said that the students whose SEVIS record was restored could very well have it terminated in the future along with their visas. At least for the next few weeks, several students—especially those involved in legal challenges—can breathe a sigh of relief. However, for people like Nakul, who already left the country due to fears of arrest, the government’s decision has come too late.
Reprinted from The Quint (thequint.com) with permission. Sakshat Chandok, who has a keen interest in history, politics, and existentialist literature, is a foreign affairs correspondent at The Quint. He covers issues faced by the Indian diaspora and occasionally dabbles in legal stories. He can be reached at sakshat.chandok@thequint.com
(*Names changed to protect identity.)
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