By Jackson Brandhorst, Bridgette Fox, Molly Parker, Julia Rendleman & Lylee Gibbs
The federal government has revoked the visas of some international students studying at universities across Illinois, but college administrators are sharing few details, including how many students have been impacted.
A spokesperson for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign this week confirmed that some of its students are affected, but did not disclose a number. U of I ranks sixth nationally in the size of its international student body at over 15,000.
“Out of student privacy concerns, we are not sharing specific information, but we are working directly with affected students to help them connect with appropriate resources and understand their options,” said Robin Kaler, a university spokesperson. Kaler declined to provide more details, though multiple sources familiar with the situation at U of I, who asked that their names not be used because they are not authorized to speak on the matter, say the number of students whose visas have been revoked is at least several dozen — and likely growing.
The revocations are part of a broader federal crackdown playing out on campuses across the country. International students have faced abrupt visa cancellations in recent weeks, as the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration dragnet ensnares college students, federal officials claim have violated visa rules, though the reasons for the revocations are not always made clear. In many cases, students have also lost their status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, SEVIS, which allows them to legally stay in the U.S. while enrolled in school.
Across its vast network of public and private colleges and universities, Illinois hosts one of the largest international student populations in the nation, ranking fifth, with more than 55,000 international students, according to a 2024 Open Doors report.
A spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said it has been in “close touch” with both public and private university leaders across the state but declined to share any information about how many students have been affected — or whether it even knows. The spokesperson said Pritzker’s office is deferring to the universities to provide data on what is “an incredibly fluid situation.”
Ed Yohnka, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said the lack of transparency from both federal officials and universities raises serious concerns about accountability and democratic oversight. It also makes it difficult for advocacy groups like his to provide a meaningful response to affected students.
“One of the things we often think about when we think about the First Amendment, or we think about free speech is that I can’t speak freely about what the government’s doing if I don’t know they’re doing it. I can’t actually exercise my constitutional right to participate, criticize and critique the government if, in fact, the government acts in such an opaque way that I can’t know what the heck they’re doing,” he said.
“And, so I think that’s why, if the federal government won’t share this information — if they’re trying to, sort of, just sneak one by here — this is where it gets incredibly important for universities to at least give some sort of number, some sort of range, to say that people in their community are being impacted and affected by these reckless and unlawful government policies.”
Many schools are citing privacy laws, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), as to why they cannot disclose information about student visas.
SIU professor William Freivogel said that while the FERPA bars university disclosure of a student’s visa status unless the student gives written permission, the university should release anonymized data — without student names or identifying information.
“If the university is concerned that a student is losing the[ir] visa without the government presenting adequate reasons, the university can ask the student if it can disclose the information,” said Freivogel, who specializes in media law. “Presumably the governor’s office, if concerned about the situation statewide, could try to collect information in the same way — asking students if they want to waive their FERPA rights so that people can get a better picture of what is happening statewide and nationwide.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in late March that student visas are being revoked because select international students came to the U.S. to study, but instead engaged in “activist movements that are disruptive and undermine universities,” through protests on campus, specifically those that “are supportive of movements that run counter to the foreign policy of the United States.” That includes those calling for support of the Palestinian people and a ceasefire in Gaza, although it is unclear what the U.S. considers to be “movements that run counter to the foreign policy of the United States.”
On Wednesday, April 9, the U.S. said it will begin monitoring immigrants’ social media pages for antisemitism.
DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said, “Anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism — think again.”
Under this new directive, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will consider social media content that indicates an immigrant “endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests” — which may lead to visa revocation and the inability to be reinstated.
Happening on campuses across the state
University officials in Illinois have not disclosed the reasons that their students have lost their visas, and in some cases said they don’t even know themselves.
Southern Illinois University Carbondale reported one student with a revoked visa in late March but has since declined to comment on whether additional students have been affected.
After the initial confirmation, an SIU spokesperson told a reporter it would “no longer confirm or share information” and is “devoting our resources and energies to supporting our international students.”
Meanwhile, SIU Edwardsville has confirmed that eight students, including three undergraduates and five graduate students, lost their visa status earlier this week.
A Northern Illinois University spokesperson confirmed Thursday that five international students there had lost their visas.
SIU Carbondale reported 875 international students for the fall of 2024, a 2.5% increase from the year prior, while NIU enrolled roughly 970 international students. As of spring 2025, SIU Edwardsville had 825 international students representing 69 countries.
The University of Chicago student newspaper, the Chicago Maroon, reported Wednesday that three current students and four recent graduates had lost their visas. International students at the University of Chicago make up nearly a quarter of its student body of roughly 16,000.
As university leaders try to balance student concerns, fears of retaliation in an increasingly fraught political climate and growing demands for transparency, some say they feel left in the dark. And they worry the lack of transparency could conceal the full scope of the federal government’s actions against international students nationwide.
“What is deeply distressing about the news — that an international student’s visa was revoked — is the chilling silence around it, which only adds to the sense that we are powerless in the face of multiple attacks on the very existence of universities as places of learning, questioning and nurturing the next generation,” said Jyotnsa Kapur, a professor in cinema and media studies and the director of the University Honors Program at SIU Carbondale.
Kapur said international students fear jeopardizing their education and citizenship status — and want the school to provide stronger backing.
“Students want the upper administration to show support for international students — not just send cautionary notes,” said Kapur, referring to the email sent out by the university to its international student body on March 28.
“I had a couple of students in my office — they don’t want their names to be known — but they told me that there is absolute alarm about what can happen. One student was taking an after-dinner walk and a car just sat there with its lights on for 15 minutes. The student was actually afraid they may be picked up by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] like the Tufts student,” Kapur said.
Questioning the legality of these actions
Illinois state Rep. Katie Stuart, chair of the House Higher Education Committee, said she’s heard “lots of stories of visas being revoked” but also had no concrete numbers about the impact across Illinois.
“I think it would be helpful to put together a briefing for legislators to understand what the different institutions are doing to protect students because ultimately that’s our goal,” said Stuart, a Democrat whose district includes SIU Edwardsville. “But the answer really is — right now — we don’t know for sure what’s going on.”
Illinois Sen. Dale Fowler, a Republican whose district includes SIU Carbondale, also said he did not have any sense of the scope of the situation. “I would love to know for sure,” he said.
Lawyers and legal scholars have begun to question the legality of these actions from the federal government, on international student visas.
These uncharted legal waters — coupled with the looming threat of losing federal funding — have effectively pushed many U.S. colleges into a state of silence and compliance with the federal government.
Lauren Aronson, a clinical professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and director of its Immigration Law Clinic, said she is particularly worried about the university’s large population of students from China, who she believes are becoming a target.
“The purpose is xenophobia and racism — it’s about punishing countries that don’t fall in line,” she said.
Aronson said it’s her understanding that some of the students impacted haven’t participated in protests and don’t have criminal records.
“I’m hugely concerned,” she said. “The thing that is to me the most nefarious is the fear that is being instilled now into every international student, as there isn’t necessarily rhyme or reason about who will be targeted.”
Some SIU students have started to raise concerns to not only their administrators, but to their peers as well.
At a student government meeting on April 2, SIU student Dustin Kinney asked what they are doing for the safety and protection of international students and other marginalized groups on campus.
“I just thought it was important to mention, because there are students on this campus who are deathly scared of legal and academic retaliation. Or, in the instance of international students, having their visas revoked,” said Kinney. “Friends of mine are too scared to even come to things like USG meetings because of the revocations happening nationwide and at SIU.”
This story was produced for Capitol News Illinois through the Saluki Local Reporting Lab, supported by grant funding from the Pulitzer Center, the Illinois Press Foundation and the SIU Foundation.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
