The US is poised to “actively” revoked visas issued to an unspecified number of students from China, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
The lawsuit is expected to intensify Trump administration’s clash with universities against international students. This overturned campus life, threatened the tide of university income during the era of deep federal fundraising, and threatened the tide of university income at a time when it spilled into courts around the country.
Rubio said in X that the cancellation includes “people with ties to the Chinese Communist Party and those who have studies in important fields.”
He said in a statement that the US State Department and the Department of Homeland Security will “aggressively” revoke visas, and will also “revise standards will be revised to “enhance scrutiny of all visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
The latest data from the Institute of International Education states that over 1.1 million foreign students were in the United States because they were Chinese or Indian citizens for undergraduate, graduate school or postgraduate work training programs in 2023-24. According to the report, the largest share of all international students attended the California institution.
In California, Chinese students are the largest group of international students. California’s 51,000 Chinese citizens make up more than a third of the state’s nearly 141,000 foreign students. USC alone had nearly 6,000 Chinese students as of fall 2024.
USC, Berkeley, California, San Diego, California, and UCLA have pulled out the largest number of international students.
Kevin Lu, a native of Shenzhen, China and graduated with a USC financial degree in December, said the statement from Rubio was “really disappointing.”
Lu, who works at an investment bank in Orange County, has obtained a visa under “Practical Options Training.”
“After this news, I might postpone my international trip because there may be a big risk that I will not return if I leave the country,” Lou said. “Is it a hit for the US economy when they cancel a sufficient student visa, as international students are not only a source of income for universities, they pay more for tuition fees, but also provide value to universities and businesses?”
This announcement comes as higher education is caught up in a series of policy changes related to foreign students. The Trump administration’s efforts have led some students to leave with fear at campuses around the country.
On Tuesday, the State Department stopped scheduling visa interviews with foreign students in an effort to transfer state research, but said the move was temporary. The department said it is preparing to increase the screening of future international students’ social media activities.
A few days ago, the Trump administration revoked its ability to register international students at Harvard University. Massachusetts agencies immediately sued the lawsuit and temporarily suspended the government’s ban.
The fight over foreign students is unfolding more and more in courts. Last week, a California judge issued a nationwide injunction that hampered the Trump administration’s efforts to end the legal status of thousands of international students.
S. Jack Hu, who was named UC’s riverside prime minister on Wednesday and was born in China, but never saw Rubio’s announcement, said he believed the US was a “draw of international talent.”
Hu, who secured a visa to study engineering as a graduate student at the University of Michigan in the 1980s, said:
“If you look at a lot of new technology companies and startups, immigration is the one that makes a big contribution to these new technologies and the economy of the country,” says Hu, currently Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of Georgia. He will begin his new position on July 15th.
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