UCLA international student detained at U.S.-Mexico border amid Trump visa cancellations
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A UCLA international graduate student has been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border and is being held by Customs and Border Protection, the school has confirmed, an action taken amid the Trump administration’s escalating cancellations of foreign student visas and attempts to deport pro-Palestinian student protesters.
The university did not release the student’s name, nationality or other details. The student is a woman, several faculty members and an attorney attempting to contact her said. She was apparently taken into custody Wednesday night, faculty members said during a quickly organized campus rally in her support Thursday evening.
“UCLA has learned that an international graduate student was detained by United States Customs and Border Protection while attempting to enter the United States from Mexico,” Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement to The Times.
“The student remains in the custody of CBP and we are actively working to learn more information. Our international students are an essential part of our Bruin community, and we remain fully committed to supporting their ability to learn and thrive at UCLA.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, said it was unable to answer questions about the student without her name.
Faculty, and the immigration attorney who has been attempting to contact the student, said Friday they had not yet spoken to her. They added that the student was detained at the San Ysidro border crossing south of San Diego and was able to reach a UCLA contact before she was taken into custody.
It is not known why the student was in Mexico or what led to her detention.
The speed and scope of the federal government’s efforts to terminate the legal status of international students have stunned colleges and universities across the country.
Since late March, the Trump administration has suddenly canceled more than 1,000 visas of foreign students in the U.S., including more than 120 in California and roughly 20 at UCLA and dozens at other UC and California State University campuses.
On April 4, UC San Diego said an international student there was also detained at the U.S.-Mexico border while attempting to cross. In a campus message, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said the student was “detained at the border, denied entry and deported to their home country.”
At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security, which maintains a database that affirms the enrollment of foreign students at universities, has terminated the status of the same students. College staff have learned of the actions after checking the database.
Is unclear whether the UCLA student’s visa was canceled or if her student status in the DHS database had changed. Citing student privacy, a UCLA spokesperson said it could not share information about the student’s visa or enrollment status.
Visas grant international students entry to the United States. Their status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, is part of what gives them legal permission to stay in the U.S. for studies or limited on-the-job training after graduation.
The administration has not given detailed reasons for the national sweep of visa or student enrollment status cancellations.
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who faced unrelated criminal charges.
Attorneys for several students said they were told the visa and SEVIS cancellations were due to criminal records checks, but their lawyers have said that some students’ alleged violations included minimal infractions such as speeding tickets. Immigration experts said that such actions did not meet the level at which visas or student status would be lost under past administrations, including during President Trump’s first term.
Three students from Southern California this month sued the Trump administration in Los Angeles federal court, saying their statuses were illegally terminated. The students filed their suits anonymously and did not identify their campuses. One person was on a postgraduate professional training visa after attending a Los Angeles campus, another student attended an Orange County university and the third student was enrolled at an Inland Empire campus.
The Los Angeles student’s complaint says that his “only criminal history is a misdemeanor charge that was later dismissed” and that “he has no conviction for a crime of violence.” The Orange County student’s suit says that their legal violations were a “minor speeding ticket and a misdemeanor alcohol-related driving conviction” and that the State Department was aware of the alcohol charge before renewing their visa. The Inland Empire student’s complaint says their “only criminal history is a minor misdemeanor non-alcohol-related driving conviction.”
More aggressive immigration enforcement actions took place last month, mainly at Ivy League and elite campuses in the Northeast, including Columbia University, where foreign students who supported pro-Palestinian protests were arrested for deportation. In statements and legal filings, the Trump administration has claimed the students were supporters of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and a threat to U.S. foreign policy goals.
High-profile cases include those of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate of Palestinian descent who is in a Louisiana detention facility as his lawyers argue in immigration and federal courts over the government plans to deport him. A Turkish student from Tufts Univeristy, Rümeysa Öztürk, is also being held in the same location after immigration agents detained her in March. Öztürk’s lawyers accuse the Trump administration of targeting her solely for an opinion article she wrote that was critical of Israel.
In the case of the detained UCLA student, it is not known if she was involved in pro-Palestinian activism.
About 150 community members rallied Thursday at UCLA in front of Murphy Hall, which houses the chancellor’s office. They held signs reading “Hands off our students” as well as pro-Palestinian posters. “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA,” students chanted.
“We’ve been warning the university for weeks that students would be detained,” said Graeme Blair, an associate professor of political science who spoke at the rally. “We’d like UCLA to stand up for their students.”
Ariela Gross, a UCLA law and history professor, also addressed the crowd. “We have a moral obligation ... the UC has a moral obligation” to defend students, she said.
The UCLA Faculty Assn. and student activist groups that organized the rally have asked UCLA to provide legal support for students who are detained by immigration authorities or whose visas are canceled. They have also requested that UCLA allow international students who leave the U.S. to continue their studies remotely.
Concerns over international students have been growing at UCLA since March, when immigration arrests of students began at Columbia and other universities. UCLA issued a March 19 travel advisory to foreign students of “evolving federal policies and global travel conditions” that could affect spring break plans. On April 4, the UCLA Dashew Center — the campus hub for international students — released a letter about “the current changes surrounding visa policies and the uncertainty they bring.”
“The primary purpose of a student or scholar visa is to pursue academic studies and research,” Dashew Center director Sam Nahidi said in the letter, which offered counseling and attorney referrals. “Any involvement in arrests or misconduct could have serious visa implications,
potentially leading to visa termination.”
UCLA announced 12 visa cancellations the next day.
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