Anonymity has been granted in this article to two international students due to recent federal actions. The identities of each person has been verified.

University of Massachusetts Amherst officials confirmed that as of April 9, 13 international undergraduate and graduate students, along with alumni, have had their legal statuses revoked.

Emily Gest, associate vice chancellor for news and media relations, confirmed that the university’s updated statement reflects the current circumstances regarding the administration’s lack of prior knowledge or involvement in the most recent nine revocations.

Gest said the university has contacted students and is “offering to work on enrollment completion options for the semester as appropriate and trying to facilitate resources as needed.”

According to Gest, in every case, “UMass Amherst was not asked for information in advance by the federal government, did not provide information concerning the revocations to the federal government and was not notified by the federal government of these status terminations.”

UMass Amherst is not the only college or university to be impacted by sudden visa revocations in recent days.

The federal government revoked F-1 student visas and terminated the non-immigrant statuses of two current UMass Boston students and five other members of the university community, Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco said Saturday, April 5. The following day, Harvard University announced that three current students and two recent graduates had had their visas revoked.

Additionally, in an April 6 update, UMass administration corrected a previous false report that the university had collaborated with the federal government to provide information about international students. Although information was given, as required, to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the two are disconnected.

According to the university’s statement, OCR complaint processes are routine and occur under all federal administrations. The process is usually prompted by individuals alleging discriminatory treatment because they or someone else was overly or insufficiently disciplined for breaches of student conduct.

UMass is under active investigation for both allegations of antisemitism and separate allegations of anti-Palestinian bias.

The administration said that it is following federal procedures and the “visa revocations have no known connection with either the campus’ federally mandated participation in active OCR Title VI complaint processes or with students’ engagement in activism,” according to the statement.

Additionally, UMass stated that they will remain in compliance with Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) laws to protect the privacy of student education records.

At UMass, a green card student who lives in Boston but was born in Haiti said that she feels most students are placing the blame for these revocations on Chancellor Reyes, citing lingering animosity from last spring’s encampments.

“No one is being objective because they’ve already created this preconceived notion of who the chancellor is and what his attitudes are,” she said. “They blame him for every little thing, and I feel like this is just another stepping stone for them. They can’t even look at it objectively, and that’s kind of changing the way I do things.”

In response to the administration’s statements, the Student Government Association (SGA) released its official statement on April 7, before news of the additional nine visa revocations was made public. The SGA statement was closely aligned with the administration’s words and urged support to the international student community.

“The Student Government Association is deeply concerned about the recent revocation of the Visas of five of our constituents, as the Chancellor stated the University was not notified of these actions,” the statement said. “We commend the University for being proactive in checking the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database and for taking immediate action to provide these students with support and resources both on and off campus.”

Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern also provided a statement on April 8 regarding the revocations across the country and in the commonwealth.

“Trump’s attacks on the civil rights and liberties of students on this campus and across the country is disgusting and completely unacceptable,” he said. “Whether it’s for their political beliefs or national origin, going after students and revoking their visas without due process is illegal and brazenly unconstitutional. Trump is taking a page right out of the authoritarian playbook, and I don’t want this country to be a police state.”

“I support all the colleges, universities, and student leaders who are fighting back and standing up for the dignity and rights of students who have been targeted,” McGovern continued. “I’m working urgently with my colleagues to determine how we can most aggressively pursue action at the state and federal level to stop the cruel, reckless, immoral policies of this administration.”

Notably, Massachusetts has seen several instances of ICE activity on college campuses in recent weeks. On March 25, headlines widely covered the story of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, Rumeysa Öztürk, who was arrestedby immigration authorities in Somerville and relocated to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana.

Freshman international student from Tokyo, Kazuki Mihono, said that although he was initially frightened by news of the revocations, he knew it was a possibility when he arrived in the U.S. on a student visa.

“I don’t have any thoughts against it or anything because I knew before I got here that if I did something bad and if I got caught and arrested, my visa will be revoked,” he said. “That’s what my parents were telling me before I got here. I know all that stuff. So if it’s true, I think that’s reasonable.”

The student originally from Haiti said that it feels different for students who aren’t citizens and do not have a student visa as few resources are aimed towards members of that community.

“I don’t feel supported by UMass … I’m not on a student visa, so there’s not much they can do to help me because a green card is much different than a visa,” she said. “I know there are resources available, and I feel like some other people may feel supported, but I feel like the majority of people who are not citizens may feel a little bit alienated.”

Mihono said that while he came to the U.S. with the understanding that political involvement or legal violations could put visa statuses at risk, he thinks that unjust revocations are invalid.

“All international students chose to be here. They chose to be away from their family, they chose to be away from all their friends back home, so they can learn here in the best environment,” he said. “But if [your] visa got revoked and you get deported, once you leave the U.S. and you get back, you have literally nothing left, like you will lose all the opportunity, all the years that you’ve been here. So if it happens to someone unfairly and unreasonably, then I think that should be stopped.”

Bella Ishanyan can be reached at [email protected]