Many of over 300,000 Indian students are rethinking their plans as Trump administration targets foreign students for deportation
As the Trump administration targets foreign students for deportation, many of over 300,000 Indian students in the U.S., more than from any other country, are rethinking their plans, the Washington Post reported.
As part of President Donald Trump’s plans to overhaul America’s immigration system, his administration terminated the legal status of thousands of international students — known as SEVIS records — before reversing course in the face of a wave of legal challenges.
READ: Trump administration reveals why it deported thousands of international students (May 1, 2025)
However, many who had their visas also revoked for past legal violations, some as minor as parking tickets, while in other cases no reason has been provided, remain in limbo, the Post reported citing some affected persons.
Among them an Indian engineer whose visa was revoked over an incident soon after graduation in 2023 when he was pulled over by police for driving without a license and paid a $1,200 fine for the infraction.
“I came here legally and made one small mistake, but I am not a criminal,” the engineer, who is from Hyderabad, Telangana, was quoted as saying. “This government has really scared us,” he said. “We have no idea what they will do next.”
Nearly 100,000 Indians are employed through the OPT program. Half of the 327 visa revocation cases tracked by the American Immigration Lawyers Association involved Indian nationals, according to the Post.
The leading Washington daily spoke to 10 Indian students who are studying in the United States or applying to American universities about how the crackdown has upended their lives and changed their plans.
“The message from the government was, ‘We don’t want your best and brightest,’” Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer representing 133 international students who have had their legal status revoked, roughly a third of whom are from India, was quoted as saying.
Ravi Lothumalla, an educational consultant in Dallas, is part of three WhatsApp groups, each with at least 200 Indian students, where members share updates on their cases and compare legal advice.“Trump is clearly taking this very seriously,” Lothumalla said.
International students also have been targeted for their political views. The arrest of Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University accused of spreading “Hamas propaganda,” and the visa revocation of Columbia University graduate student Ranjani Srinivasan after her pro-Palestinian posts on social media have also sent a chill through Indian student communities, the Post reported.
America’s world-class university system has long made it a destination for ambitious students from around the world. More than one million international students contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy in the past academic year, according to NAFSA (formerly the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers) cited by the Post.
Kuck, the immigration lawyer, said the administration’s policies could rapidly erode the country’s competitive advantage: “Indian students are going to start saying, ‘You know what, I think I am going to learn German.’”
An Indian graduate student at an Ivy League institution was cited as saying she and others had begun drafting contingency plans — finishing degrees abroad or applying for jobs in Europe. In April, her university said in a campus-wide email that at least three students had their SEVIS records terminated.
“I don’t want to live in fear,” she was quoted as saying, “where you have to watch and think about every little thing you do.”
“We used to think of America as a place where we could build a career,” said another Indian student, 31, who is pursuing a graduate degree in New York. “That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.”
Another 31-year-old Indian student at a Northeastern University has canceled a trip home this summer, fearing he might not be allowed to return. He is now expanding his academic network to Canada and South Africa.
Some students targeted for deportation have lived in the United States for many years and are now struggling to navigate the complexities of the immigration system.
Anthony Renzulli, a former director for India at the National Security Council, cited by the Post warned that the crackdown could fundamentally alter the relationship between the two countries.
“The number of Indian foreign students is inevitably going to decline,” he said. “It cuts into the very foundation of the U.S.-India partnership — the people-to-people ties.”
January saw a 50% drop in visas issued to Indian students as compared with the previous year, according to State Department figures. “The loss to the U.S. is incalculable,” Renzulli said.