Trump admin says it has revoked 6,000 student visas for crime or terror support 

The State Department has confirmed it has pulled 6,000 student visas for crimes such as assault, burglary, visa overstay or for vocal support of terrorist organizations.

“Every single student visa revoked under the Trump Administration has happened because the individual has either broken the law or expressed support for terrorism while in the United States,” a senior State Department official said in an exclusive statement to Fox News. “About 4,000 visas alone have been revoked because these visitors broke the law while visiting our country, including records of assault and DUIs.”

The rest were likely revoked because of political activity in support of Hamas or other terror groups or because of some affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

As part of the Student Criminal Alien Initiative, the government began pulling Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records and cross-checking foreign students through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database in March.

The program ran 1.3 million records to identify those with any law enforcement interactions, reported Politico.

This led to the termination of over 4,700 visas.

Of those visas, 800 were terminated for assault charges, with another 200 to 300 terminated for active support of terror groups, said Fox.

The numbers are over and above the normal terminations students face every year for rules violations, such as working, or failing to maintain a legal course load. 

Fox noted last year the Biden administration terminated about 16,000 student visas during the same time frame of his term, while the Trump administration has terminated 40,000 student visas so far for routine violations.

“Even if the previous administration was doing less, they were still revoking visas,” the State Department official told Fox. “It’s not something that just started on January 20 … So this has happened for years.”

In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US would begin targeting revocation of Chinese student visas, especially for those students who have ties to the CCP.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” said Rubio via a statement.

The administration also said it would make it more difficult for Chinese students to obtain visas in the future, especially to study in critical fields such as semiconductor engineering and aerospace, known as dual-use fields.

Under the CCP’s Thousand Talents Program, the communist party has sought to build up technical knowledge gained in the U.S. and export it back to China to use in defense and commercial applications that might target the U.S.

Experts estimate as many as 55,000 Chinese students with parental ties to the CCP could be studying in the U.S.

Under a Trump executive order, the Department of State, Homeland Security (DHS), and the attorney general and director of national intelligence are required to increase the vetting for all students coming to study in the U.S., said Fox.

The order also requires the government to increase checks on students currently in the U.S.

“It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes,” said the order.

Previously, The Heartlander reported the administration had suspended the ability of Harvard to accept students studying on a visa.

“This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Harvard. “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments.”