Brain Drain and Unlawful Immigration Enforcement
At the end of April, Columbia undergraduate student Mohsen Mahdawi spoke in high spirits to a group of reporters outside of a Vermont Courthouse. The crowd had gathered to hear about his experience and reflections from the detention center where he had been kept for the past two weeks.
Mahdawi, a Palestinian refugee and U.S. green card holder for the past ten years, was taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. ICE agents had set up a fake citizenship interview to lure him back to his home state of Vermont, where they then imprisoned him. Mahdawi is one of the co-founders of the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia University, and has been an active leader in organizing the largely-covered protests at Columbia University until March 2024. His detainment signified a larger effort by the Trump Administration, particularly against international students, to silence political activism against Israel. Mahdawi bravely addressed the President and his cabinet as responsible parties for his detention, proclaiming that he was “not afraid” of Trump.
“If there is no fear, what is it replaced with?” he said. “Love. Love is our way.”
Fear, however, has become a constant source of anxiety for student communities across the nation, amid a rapidly changing political environment. According to statistics from Inside Higher Ed, 1,800 international students have had their legal status changed. NAFSA: The Association of International Educators further reports that 1,400 of those have been visa revocations. Individual stories, such as that of Mahdawi, have been at the forefront of news outlets since Trump’s cabinet began its crackdown against student activists for Palestine. Notably, Mahdawi’s Palestinian Student Union co-founder and fellow protest leader, Mahmoud Khalil, has been in a Louisiana Detention Center since March 2025 due to his participation in the Palestinian Student Movement. Numerous other students fear impromptu arrests, similar to that of Rumeysa Ozturk, who was arrested outside her home after writing an op-ed that called for Tufts University to divest in companies tied to Israel. The United States, once considered the land of opportunity, now serves as an example of the detrimental effect that rampant nationalism and authoritarianism have on international student populations. The attitude of the U.S. government towards international students thus begets the question: is the education worth the risk?
Higher Education, Higher Prospects
At the start of the 1990s, the United States witnessed a huge surge of “skilled” workers as a result of Congress’s establishment of the Immigration Act. Consequently, there was a 35% increase in migrants coming to the country, with the H1-B Visa increasing legal immigration by 40%. The popularity of America’s economic system was on the rise as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the country’s post-war political stability attracted those who sought more prosperous economic and social possibilities that their home countries could not offer.
America’s welcoming reputation abroad has been reflected through its educational communities, with over 1.1 million international students registering for college and university in the United States between 2023 and 2024. For the past two decades, the number of international students choosing to study in the U.S. has doubled, demonstrating how the country has become a haven for young people to learn, create, and contribute to America’s intellectual community. Whether or not they choose to stay, the benefit that international students have on the United States economy is astronomical: international students contributed $44 billion to the U.S. economy in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, with reports stating that “for every three international students, one U.S. job is created/supported.” These students not only learn from U.S. college institutions, but they also make them (and the surrounding areas) increasingly financially and culturally prosperous.
The First Amendment – With An Asterisk
When Donald Trump assumed office in January 2025, his cabinet made one of its primary courses of action to challenge the status of international opportunity that the United States has cultivated over the past twenty years. The Trump Administration’s attack on international students’ freedom of speech and legal status is a part of a larger xenophobic and racist initiative to reduce the number of immigrants in the U.S. altogether. According to the lawyers representing international students targeted by the Trump Administration, each revocation appears to be tied to their clients’ public support of Palestine – whether on a larger scale, such as leading protests or expressing written dissent, to something as small as reposting an Instagram story in support of ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza. While seeking to deport these students, Trump’s legal team has been enacting the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which claims to protect citizens from “undesirable” aliens. Ironically, the Act was created, in part, to limit Jewish migration to the United States post-Holocaust amidst the fear of communism and a departure from nativism.
The Trump administration’s actions represent a desire to return to a fictitious and conservative version of the United States, untouched by inclusivity and unharmed by a mysterious, unnamed foreign enemy. Criticism of the United States, this administration claims, is an attack on American values and its people. However, the First Amendment prohibits Congress from creating laws that prevent free speech. As Mahdawi’s lawyers point out, dissent is lawful – and deporting students for free speech is illegal.
Trump’s agenda to threaten anyone who criticizes his administration is meant to garner fear and thus discourage dissent against his conservative (and, at times, unlawful) policies. As of March 2025, his team has spent a total of $2 billion on ICE and is predicted to continue to spend billions more on new detention centers and equipment for the Department of Homeland Security. Instead of dedicating those funds towards policies like the 1990s Immigration Act, his tactics will ultimately be a detriment to the United States' acquisition of talent and intellectual prowess. International collaboration, especially within higher education, is necessary to create a strong economic and cultural society.
Protecting Your Peers
It is up to American citizens to act upon their civic duty in protecting those with vulnerable immigration statuses in colleges and universities around the country. Calling your local and state political representatives to express your concerns regarding the safety of international students who hold legal status in the United States, signing petitions to further vocalize a collective contempt towards Trump’s immigration policies, as well as posting about and attending rallies that help keep students like Mahdawi, Khalil, Ozturk and more in the public eye are all ways to express your collective and individual dissent.
If you do see ICE on or around your university or college campus, do the following (if you feel safe to do so):
Ask the officers why they are there and ensure they have proper documentation, such as warrants, that establish their permission to be on campus grounds.
If officers are conducting searches or arresting students, record the interaction at a safe distance. Attempt to capture badge names, numbers, and any other relevant information about the situation.
Contact local non-profit organizations that deal with immigration (such as law clinics or places that offer pro bono services) to inform them about the arrest or search.
Further information can be found at this link.