3 Penn students have had their immigration statuses terminated

Susan Snyder and Zoe Greenberg, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Apr 7, 2025

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PHILADELPHIA — Three students at the University of Pennsylvania have had their permission to study in the country revoked, the school said Monday morning.

Penn said none of the visa revocations appear to be related to student protest activity, for which President Donald Trump’s administration has been targeting international students on other college campuses.

The terminations appear to be in relation to “immigration status violations,” Penn officials said in an email sent to international students and scholars. The students on Penn-sponsored student visas had their immigration status “deactivated in the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Information System,” Penn said. Notifications were sent from the Department of Homeland Security, the school said.

The Ivy League university said it’s also aware of “reports of encounters with ICE agents at Penn and additional visa revocations” but did not provide any details.

“We want to reassure the community that we are monitoring and investigating all reports and providing appropriate support to people when these incidents arise,” wrote Ezekiel J. Emanuel, vice provost for global initiatives, and Karu Kozuma, vice provost for university life. “This is an extremely unsettling time for international students and scholars at Penn and in the United States.”

Penn did not say if the students are fighting the revocations or are returning to their home countries and provided no details about the students, including their countries of origin.

The visa revocations did not seem to be impacting students involved in the pro-Palestinian encampment erected at Penn last spring, according to an activist who was involved in last year’s protests at Penn. The activist, who asked not to be named because of concerns about retribution, feared it was only a matter of time, though.

Students are concerned that the university’s email seemed to confirm the presence of ICE on campus, the activist said.

“Terrified, like everyone else,” Harun Küçük, an associate professor and former director of the university’s Middle East Center, said in reaction to the student visa revocations.

But he was not surprised.

“It’s happening everywhere,” he said. “It was bound to happen here, too.”

The university did not immediately respond to requests for additional information. ICE also did not respond to requests for comment.

The actions at Penn mark the second incident locally of immigration status revocation. Temple University last week said that a student had chosen to self deport after the student’s visa was revoked.

It comes as Trump’s administration has made efforts to deport students who have been involved in pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, as well as for other reasons. A University of Minnesota student recently had his visa pulled because of a drunken driving infraction, according to news reports.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that he had revoked about 300 visas of students, visitors, and others for their views on foreign policies and their actions, including protesting.

The Trump administration has already conducted high-profile moves to deport students from Columbia and Tufts Universities. The Tufts student, who was from Turkey, was surrounded by officers on a sidewalk and swept away. A doctoral student at Cornell University, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, and a Harvard University researcher are among others who faced actions, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Times of India last week reported that hundreds of international students in the United States got an email from the Department of State directing them to self-deport because of their involvement in campus activism.

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Staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this report.