Photo by Antonio Mochmann
Stony Brook students, staff and other community members protested the federal government’s termination of 11 international students’ visas at the administration fountain and building on Wednesday. Students demanded that SBU provide free housing, meal assistance and immigration lawyers to the international students; file restraining orders against ICE; set up a hotline for international students and declare SBU a sanctuary campus.
The visa revocations — which SBU announced in an email on April 10 — are part of a growing trend in colleges and universities across the nation. In a meeting with student leaders and SBU officials on Tuesday, Meghan Gambino, assistant dean for visa and immigration services said the federal government did not give a clear reason for revocation. SBU officials also did not share the students’ identities.
Some affected students, such as Columbia University’s Mahmoud Khalil, are facing deportation due to their involvement in the Gaza solidarity encampments from last spring, the Department of Homeland Security said. For others, DHS cited prior legal convictions such as drunk driving charges and traffic charges.
“There’s not a lot of information that’s been provided,” Gambino said. “We are not notified in advance when a student[‘s visa] is going to be terminated… And the reason that’s being given is very vague.”
“It’s apparent that there were some – there is concerns, but the government has not provided any further details regarding the terminations,” Gambino added.
SBU officials did confirm that the students were a mixture of graduate and undergraduate students, with some set to graduate in May.
At the protest, students, faculty and community members held signs that read: “Melt ICE”; “Free Mahmoud”; “SUNY don’t capitulate don’t cooperate w/ICE or this regime”; and “Our students / Our community.”
Sanctuary campuses refer to schools and educational institutions that do not engage with federal immigration enforcement or their efforts to “identify, detain or deport undocumented immigrant students.”
When asked about the possibility of designating SBU as a sanctuary campus or providing sanctuary spaces on campus, Provost Carl Lejuez, said, “I think that would only tell folks where to go look,” he said. He further explained that there is no way to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from coming on campus.
Sanctuary campus is not a legal term with specific policies, and therefore can range in the kind of protection it can offer students.
“Simply declaring itself a sanctuary campus does not prevent federal immigration officers/agencies from coming onto campus. In fact, they have the right to come to campus unannounced if campuses participate in the Student Exchange & Visitor Program (SEVP),” Nancy Jodaitis, founder and principal consultant of Institutional Solutions, a consulting firm that helps schools protect student data and enroll undocumented students, told The Press.
SBU is an SEVP campus, according to the DHS website.
“Now more than ever, colleges & universities must act swiftly and with courage to protect ALL students by upholding FERPA, abiding by the constitution, and ensuring academic freedom cannot be weaponized,” Jodaitis wrote in an email. “The unlawful attack on international and immigrant students is an attack on our democracy and must stop immediately!”
Judith Brown Clarke, vice president for equity and inclusion, said that there hasn’t been a noticeable pattern yet on why students had their visas revoked.
“The gambit runs across the board,” Clarke said. “We don’t know why they’re revoked… so there’s not really a way of figuring out a trend so that you can say these are things that seem to be triggering the response of revoking your status.”
Josh Dubnau, a professor in the anesthesiology department who spoke at the protest, said that the administration wasn’t the enemy, but they should “do better.”
“I think that our administration is making a mistake if they believe that by keeping our heads down and staying off the radar… that somehow Stony Brook will be spared,” Dubnau said.
Antonio Mochmann contributed to this report.
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