After protests on Indiana University's campus on April 9, international students are still concerned about their futures. (Alaina Davis)
While domestic students celebrate the end of the spring semester, many international students face a difficult decision: stay in the U.S. or go home and risk dealing with tighter border restrictions.
Universities across the country have warned international students not to travel home given President Donald Trump’s wavering immigration policies. Thousands of international students feared they lost their visas last month, including students at Indiana University. Though their statuses were restored, worries remain.
Bhumireddy Sai Srinivas, an international student from India, earned his Masters degree in law at IU this month. Now waiting for work authorization, Sai will stay in the U.S. as a legal assistant at an immigration firm.
“When the person has been in this country with a good faith in order to pursue his American dream, where his visa has been denied, of course, it's going to have a fear mounting on me too,” Sai said. “But we can't do anything.”
Visa cancellations add fear to complicated process
Sai said he was hopeful when President Donald Trump was elected. He thought Trump would create more job opportunities for international students, but got worried when he instead saw how many visas got terminated.
Though he’s here legally, the move still caused concern.
“It was too devastating for the international students like us,” Sai said. “As a law student, I am sure he is not targeting any legal students, who are legal immigrants coming to the U.S., only [those] who are doing some wrongful activity or criminal kind of activity.”
At Indiana University, Provost Rahul Shrivastav said a “small number” of visas had been revoked in April.
The publication Inside Higher Ed reported about 1,800 nationally had their visas revoked by the federal government. Weeks later, the Trump administration restored those visas, but immigration officials are developing a framework for future terminations.
Read more: IU administration outlines steps for students who lose their visas
At least 10 of Sai’s friends have left the country out of fear of being deported.
Sai hasn’t gone home to visit his family in India over concerns getting back into the U.S. If given the option to return to India right now, he wouldn’t go.
“I’m waiting for a very good time,” Sai said.
Mary is an IU graduate student who asked to not use her full name for fear of being deported. She said she isn’t going back home to China this summer because she has an internship in the U.S. But even if she did have time to go back, she said she wouldn’t.
“I don't appreciate the choice being taken away … you go home, and then you might not be allowed to come back,” she said. “With my entire life here, with my lease being here, and all of my belongings being here, and my relationships being here, I think at least for the time being, summer may not be the best time to go home.”
Mary said there is a collective panic among international students about getting their visas taken away. If hers gets taken, she said, she would go back to China and find a job. She’s frustrated by the situation.
“If you're a guest, there's always the possibility that your stay could end,” she said.
International students want more from university leaders
IU spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for comment on how the university supports international students.
The Indiana Graduate Workers Union and other community activists have stepped up to protect international students. Lawyers are giving advice to union members, including Vietnamese graduate student Quan Le Thien. Meanwhile, he feels as if IU has not provided enough support for international students.
“The IU administration is completely silent about this,” Le Thein said.
Read more: Here's how international students targeted by Trump get to stay in Indiana - for now
Le Thien is staying in Bloomington this summer for a research position. If he were to go home, he said, he would take many more precautions. He would need to apply early for his visa and get his documents in order. He said he should be more mindful of the content on his phone.
“IU has not been sending us anything,” Le Thein said. “That has created this uncertainty for us, that we don't know whether they are actually targeting IU, or are IU students still affected?”
Mary also thinks IU hasn’t provided enough support for international students.
“I think IU doesn't really do anything, does it?” she said. “Because I think they were pretty clear before the administration sort of halted the visa cancellations, ‘we can't do anything for you. We can't provide guidance, we can't provide legal support’”
She said she doesn’t feel like IU cares about international students.
U.S. colleges need international students
Gerardo Gonzalez, IU Dean of Education emeritus, said top universities want to attract the best and brightest international students. Meanwhile, these students, looking for the American dream like Sai, want to stay and work. Along with their tuition money, they bring diversity to classrooms and dialogue on campus.
Gonzalez said IU has a long history of welcoming and retaining international students. But the idea that prospective students will be safe and welcomed in the U.S. is eroding, he said.
“If there’s a lot of anxiety surrounding their ability to be here in the United States legally and to pursue their studies in a safe environment, that is likely to influence their decision to go elsewhere,” Gonzalez said. “Just from a competitive point of view, I think the U.S. system of higher education is negatively impacted by uncertainty, by fear.”
Even if international students meet bureaucratic and academic demands, they still need to feel supported, Gonzalez said.
Read more: IU grad union demanding leaders protect international students amid visa cancellations
“The expectations are high, because if they don't succeed academically and adjust to the campus expectations and culture,” he said. “They could lose their visa status and not complete their education.”
When Trump was elected president, Mary said she considered moving to another country. But she ended up deciding to stay, because she thought she’d have more opportunities.
“If you're getting an American legal degree, the best way to use it would be to be in America,” she said. “And if you want to go international, you can do it in the future, but to have those first couple of years in the U.S. is really important.”
Recent data from NAFSA: Association of International Educators demonstrates that more than 1 million international students contributed $43.8 billion to the economy — almost $44,000 per student — and supported over 378,000 jobs.
Elizabeth Dunn, director of IU’s Center for Refugee Studies, said deporting international students, as well as enacting full-country bans, could have dire implications for the economy.
“What is going to happen to, for example, chemistry labs at Indiana University, which are overwhelmingly staffed by international students?” she said. “What is going to happen to the tech industry if they ban the entry of workers from India? Our economy has always depended on immigrant labor.”
Watch this story at 6 p.m. Friday on Indiana Newsdesk.
