The federal government terminated ten Georgetown University community members’ immigration statuses, according to a university update posted April 14. This comes after the university announced that about six community members’ statuses were terminated in an April 9 update.
“The reasons given for such terminations are limited and Georgetown University was not informed of them by the government,” the webpage reads.
The website states that the Office of Global Services is continuously monitoring all F-1 and J-1 student and scholar records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), and will reach out to impacted community members to provide resources.
The update comes after the Department of Homeland Security detained Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown postdoctoral fellow, on March 17. Khan Suri is a researcher at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) and an Indian national who is in the U.S. legally on an exchange visa. Many of Khan Suri’s students have deemed his detention to be retaliation for his free speech and his familial ties to Hamas.
On April 9, the same webpage also alerted students that six community members had their visa statuses revoked, the first official announcement of any revocations occurring on Georgetown’s campus. Across the country, at least 600 students have had their visa statuses revoked, according to reporting this morning by the Associated Press.
The same Georgetown webpage also included an update from the Department of Homeland Security that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now considers social media activity, including content that “endorses, espouses, promotes, or supports antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity” as a negative factor in its decision-making of immigration benefit applications.
The university cautioned that the U.S. government will scrutinize community members’ social media presences when applying for a visa, work authorization, during border screenings, or law enforcement encounters.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
