An AI doctoral student in California had their SEVIS record — the digital proof of their valid student visa — terminated, putting their immigration status at risk.
Speaking to TechCrunch, the student, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, said they were notified via their college’s international student center that they’d been identified in a criminal records check. The student said that they’d been studying in the U.S. for nearly a decade starting as an undergraduate, and that they have no criminal record.
“The most likely cause may be an interaction with the police many years ago, even before I entered graduate school,” the student said. “I was conducting research in the AI field and had planned to continue my research after graduation.”
Over the past few months, more than a thousand international students in the U.S. have had their visa statuses challenged by the State Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of an aggressive crackdown orchestrated by the Trump administration. In many cases, colleges haven’t been directly notified by the relevant federal agencies, leaving students with little notice — or recourse.
Yisong Yue, a machine learning professor at Caltech, told TechCrunch the U.S. government’s hardline stance on student visas is “harming the talent pipeline.”
“The cumulative effect is making the U.S. a significantly less appealing destination for many talented researchers,” Yue said. “Because research is highly specialized, when a doctoral student is pulled from a project, it can set back the project by months or years. Beyond the specific students and projects affected, many students on visas are worried.”
Few institutions have been spared by the crackdown. According to reports, students attending Ivy League universities, large public colleges, and small liberal arts schools have had their visas susp …