Fifteen Iranian college students and researchers sued the Trump administration for utterly halting scholar visa interviews whereas it determines whether or not to vet all visa candidates’ social media accounts.
The swimsuit, filed towards Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Virginia federal court docket, claims that the pause on scholar visa interviews violates the Administrative Procedures Act, a regulation prohibiting capricious rule-making. The grievance is at present sealed.
In an e-mail, Curtis Morrison and Hamdi Masri, attorneys for the scholars, famous that the State Division has required visa candidates to disclose their social media handles since Might 2019. Visa candidates from sure Muslim-majority international locations, together with Iran, are already topic to “in depth social media vetting,” Masri mentioned, including that Trump appeared to wish to “guarantee college students coming into align together with his political values.”
The scholars and researchers who introduced the swimsuit towards Rubio had been admitted to universities throughout the nation — together with Yale, Ohio State, and the College of South Florida — for graduate applications in laptop science, engineering, finance, and different disciplines. Per their attorneys, every of the scholars had already attended visa interviews, however all of their purposes are at present “awaiting nationwide safety vetting.” A number of the college students had been interviewed over a 12 months in the past.
The pause on scholar visa interviews is a part of the Trump administration’s multi-pronged assault on universities and worldwide college students. On Wednesday, Rubio mentioned the State Division would begin working with the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese language College students, together with these with connections to the Chinese language Communist Social gathering or finding out in essential fields.” On Might twenty second, DHS rescinded Harvard’s entry to a federal database used to trace overseas college students’ enrollment, placing practically 6,800 individuals enrolled at Harvard susceptible to instant deportation till a federal decide intervened.
Rubio has additionally suspended the visas of worldwide college students concerned in pro-Palestine protests on campus. Extra just lately, the State Division restricted visas of “overseas nationals who’re chargeable for censorship of protected speech in the US,” i.e., regulators who implement the European Union’s Digital Providers Act.
