A Chinese international student at Northwestern told their sister they planned to return home for summer break. Her response was stark: Don’t come back.
But the student still plans to go.
Even though the student’s visa won’t expire for a few years, their choice to return home could put them at risk. The student, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from immigration authorities, worries they could be detained — like one Chinese student at another university whose visa was revoked at the U.S. border last week.
“My mom and dad are concerned,” they said.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the State Department would “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in “critical fields.” The decision promptly sparked criticism from immigration experts and Chinese nationals.
About 277,000 Chinese students attended university in the U.S. in the 2023-24 academic year. Many Chinese citizens who are not politically active maintain membership in the CCP for varying reasons, including career benefits.
One day before Rubio’s decree, the State Department instructed U.S. embassies and consulates to stop scheduling new visa interviews as the department enhances its “social media vetting” of visa applicants.
However, for the NU student, that process is all too familiar. They have been vetting their own social media posts since they arrived in the U.S. Before they post, they subject each draft to careful scrutiny to ensure they do not “pertain to any political or sensitive topics.”
“Even though I think those posts are safe, I like to err on the side of caution,” they said.
Evanston immigration lawyer Alen Takhsh said he has not witnessed any increased enforcement action against Chinese students in the past few days.
Takhsh said he is not optimistic that courts will successfully block Rubio’s edict because the State Department has “a tremendous amount of leeway” to identify individuals for deportation and refer them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Innocent students who have come to do nothing else but to advance their scholastic careers are being used as chess pieces in a trade war between the U.S. and China,” Takhsh said.
If the State Department revokes a Chinese student’s visa, Takhsh said, the student should remain in the U.S. and seek legal counsel. Takhsh said a revoked visa does not confer unlawful presence in the country.
Medill Prof. Brent E. Huffman, an expert on Chinese foreign relations, said the State Department’s recent policy is far from unprecedented. He said it mirrors Trump’s continued “xenophobic” rhetoric that China is spying on the U.S. and stealing trade secrets — a threat Trump has taken seriously in the past.
In May 2020, the first Trump administration issued Proclamation 10043, which prohibited the State Department from issuing visas to Chinese students enrolled in U.S. graduate-level and research programs with ties to China’s “military-civil” universities. The policy had already barred more than 1,000 Chinese students from entering the U.S. by September of that year, Bloomberg reported.
“It sends a message that the U.S. is embracing fascism and authoritarian rule, and that international students are not safe here,” Huffman said.
At a Thursday morning briefing, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the department made the edict to protect U.S. citizens from potential national security risks.
Meanwhile, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller elaborated on the administration’s economic rationale on CNN, accusing China of using the student visa program to “conduct espionage on America’s industrial trade secrets.”
Huffman said the State Department’s new policy to “aggressively revoke” some Chinese students’ visas could backfire for the U.S. because it will encourage the “best and brightest” from China to study elsewhere.
“It sends the message that it’s dangerous to come to the United States, it’s dangerous to partner with the United States,” Huffman said. “I think (China) will pick up the students that we lose.”
Another Chinese international student at NU, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said they were confused by the meaning of “connections to the (CCP)” and “studying in critical fields.” They added the State Department could apply the latter justification to target students of other nationalities, creating a “slippery slope.”
Above all, however, the student urged the Trump administration to consider the moral implications of the new policy before it revokes Chinese visas en masse.
“I think about a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King (Jr.). He said, ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,’” the student said. “As Chinese students, we’re not judged by our characters, we’re just judged by our nationalities — we’re judged by being Chinese.”
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