The United States will begin to “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.
The visa revocations will target Chinese students “with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Rubio wrote in a statement. Some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s officials have expressed concerns that Chinese students are a threat to national security.
Students from China made up more than 20 percent of the nearly 5,000 international students enrolled at the University of Maryland in fall 2024, according to university data.
The University System of Maryland is carefully monitoring the department’s decision and its impact on campuses, according to a statement this university provided to The Diamondback.
“We are very concerned for the welfare of all international students, as well as their ability to learn and study in the U.S. and make contributions to our broader academic communities,” the statement read. “We continue to support our international community.”
The Department of State will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from China and Hong Kong, Rubio wrote.
It is unclear when the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security will cancel the visas of Chinese international students.
[UMD community criticizes ‘xenophobic’ federal inquiry about Chinese students, faculty]
In March, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to this university and five others requesting information about Chinese international students and researchers.
This university sent aggregated data on the requested information in compliance with the letter by the April 25 deadline, university president Darryll Pines told The Diamondback earlier this month.
The data included information such as the number of undergraduate and graduate Chinese international students, Pines said. This university did not send the committee any personally identifiable information regarding any university community members, he added.
“We have to be responsive as an academic institution that receives federal funding,” Pines said. “It’s just following the law, following the guidance that we got from our legal team.”
Earlier this year, the Trump administration unexpectedly revoked the visas of thousands of international students across the country, including seven students at this university. The administration then backtracked and reinstated the records in April, the Associated Press reported.
[7 UMD international student visas restored after Trump reversal]
Last week, Trump banned Harvard University from enrolling international students and said that thousands of students must transfer or leave the country, the Associated Press reported. A federal judge extended an order on Thursday blocking the government’s ability to ban international students at Harvard University.
Trump has said he is targeting the Ivy League school for being complicit in antisemitism and promoting liberalism, according to the news outlet.
The Department of State this week also paused the scheduling of new visa interviews for international students hoping to study in the U.S., the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
