A recent graduate of the University of Montana is among four Montana University System students whose F-1 student visas have been revoked by the federal government in recent weeks, according to a UM spokesperson.
The student has already graduated and is living in another state as part of the Optional Practical Training program, which allows F-1 students to work in a job related to their field of study for up to 12 months after graduation, university communications director Dave Kuntz told The Pulp.
“As of today we still have not been given a justification or been notified,” Kuntz said.
The university discovered the student’s visa had been terminated during a routine check of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, a database of international students maintained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“In recent weeks, we’ve determined it’s best practice to check it every day,” Kuntz said.
Kuntz said he could not share the student’s name or country of origin because of federal education privacy law. He did not know whether they had been a graduate or undergraduate student.
“As of today we still have not been given a justification or been notified.”
UM’s Global Engagement Office has been in touch with the former student, Kuntz said, and has “communicated with the student the options we believe are in front of them”: They can leave the country, file an appeal or seek independent counsel.
The University of Montana student is not a part of a lawsuit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana on behalf of two of the students at Montana State University whose visas were revoked. A third MSU student stripped of their visa is also not part of the suit.
As of April 14, over 180 colleges and universities have identified more than 1,000 students and recent graduates who have seen their visa status changed, according to data compiled by Inside Higher Ed. Some students have had their visas revoked because of political speech — making pro-Palestine posts on social media or attending protests critical of U.S. or Israeli foreign policy. Others have minor misdemeanors on their record, immigration attorneys told CNN. Some are given no justification at all — the two MSU students among them, according to the ACLU of Montana
“Despite no criminal convictions nor immigration violations and having never participated in any protest in the United States or elsewhere, these students were told that due to the termination of their student status, they are ‘expected to depart the United States immediately,’” the ACLU of Montana wrote in a press release announcing its lawsuit. “The lawsuit asks the court to reinstate these students’ F-1 student status, allowing them to continue their studies and avoid facing the risk of detention and deportation.”
Kuntz said UM will support its former student to the extent that it can in whatever choice they make. There are 174 international students at the university, he said, and “we have communicated with them even before this episode about the changing political dynamics and the options that are available to them.
“There’s a lot of dialogue and communication to those students as well as to our domestic students who are traveling abroad,” he continued.
