Protestor Pat Braun carries a sign April 23, 2025, in Rapid City, South Dakota, to protest the cancellation of student visas. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) 

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says his agency and the Department of Homeland Security will work to “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese students.

Rubio’s announcement offered few details but said “under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”

Chinese students comprise the second-largest group of international students in the United States, behind Indian students. 

The move is part of the Trump administration’s continuing immigration crackdown and battle with higher education.

In an ongoing scuffle with Harvard University, a reflection of the administration’s efforts to crack down on “woke” institutions and go after campuses they say are harboring antisemitism, the government moved to halt the school’s ability to enroll international students last week.

But Harvard sued over the effort, and the revocation has been temporarily blocked in court.

Under the Trump administration, the State Department has revoked visas of international students who were involved in campus protests and other activities related to Israel’s war in Gaza. Some students were detained by immigration authorities as part of that effort.

Focus on China

In his Wednesday announcement, Rubio said the State Department would also “revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.” 

At the department’s Thursday press briefing, spokesperson Tammy Bruce declined to get into specifics regarding the number of students who would be impacted or what falls within “critical fields,” as Rubio’s statement noted.

Bruce said the United States “will not tolerate the CCP’s exploitation of U.S. universities, or theft of U.S. research, intellectual property or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection or repress voices of opposition.”

More than 277,000 Chinese students studied in the United States during the 2023-24 academic year — making up nearly one-quarter of the more than 1,126,000 total international students in that school year, according to a report from the Institute of International Education and the State Department.

However, the total number of students from China declined slightly from the 2022-23 school year, when that figure stood at more than 289,000.

In the 2023-24 academic year, Chinese students made up one-quarter or more of the total international student population within California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington state and Wisconsin.

New York University, Northeastern University in Massachusetts and Columbia University in New York hosted the highest number of international students during that academic year.

Students from South Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Vietnam and Nigeria also comprised large groups of international students in the United States during the 2023-24 school year.  

The announcement raises myriad logistical questions over how the United States would carry out the effort, as well as how officials would determine who has “connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Meanwhile, the State Department temporarily paused new student visa interviews earlier this week as the administration prepares to expand the screening of applicants’ activity on social media, according to multiple reports.

UW-Madison Engineering Hall. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that international students with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in “critical fields” could have their visas revoked. Rubio didn’t define what those critical fields would be and also provided little detail when he said that the State Department would “enhance scrutiny” on new student visa applications.

The administration has also said it plans to increase the vetting of visa applicants’ social media accounts. The announcement that the administration would be revoking the visas of Chinese students came the same day the State Department announced it had paused scheduling appointments for visa applicants. 

UW-Madison had 3,414 international students from China this spring semester. In recent years, the university has worked to expand its international student body, aiming to increase the international population from 4% to 8% by 2028. The acceptance of international students helps the university increase revenue as state aid has remained flat and inflation has increased costs because international students pay an average of four times the amount of tuition as in-state students. 

The university said Thursday it is monitoring the situation. 

“We are deeply concerned about the impact of such a policy on our Chinese student community,” the university said. 

In a message to its international students, the university advised them to attend visa appointments that are already scheduled and inform university staff if an appointment is canceled. The message also told the students to schedule appointments as quickly as possible once the pause on scheduling is lifted and to enroll in classes for the fall. 

These moves are the latest in the Trump administration’s efforts to attack international student visas. Earlier this spring, the administration deleted visa records for some students over minor traffic infractions and encounters with law enforcement. That effort temporarily canceled the visas of more than two dozen students and alumni at UW schools across the state. 

The Trump administration rolled back that decision and reinstated the visas after a federal judge ruled in favor of a number of students who sued to stop the revocation.