Gaza: Protesting Indian students face serious risk
INDIAN students in the US and their families back home were feeling increasingly worried and uncertain with protests and disruptions escalating at several universities, surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict.
According to a report by the Economic Times, the Indian students in the US have faced various challenges in recent weeks in relation to the protests. While those taking part in the protests have been detained by the law-enforcement, threatening their visa status and scholarships; there are others who have seen lockdowns in the campus and a switch to online classes due to safety concerns.
Experts in the field of immigration and education have expressed serious concerns about the likely impact of the situation on international students' visa status.
International students need to obey laws and policy at three levels - America's federal law; the law of the state where the university is located; and the policies of the two levels of government and the school, Rajiv Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com told the newspaper, adding that violation at any of the levels could be seen as a violation of their student status leading to removal from the US.
International students who are in the US on F-1 visa must maintain their student status to remain there. If a student is expelled or suspended from their school, their F-1 visa status could be jeopardized.
Poorvi Chothani, managing partner at LawQuest in Mumbai, India, said if a student is expelled or suspended from the university, college or school, his/her F-1 visa status would be at risk. Once a student is expelled or suspended, the academic institution must end his/her enrollment in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System and it is ‘an immediate violation of the F-1 visa legal status'.
Students who find themselves in such a situation do not have many options, Chothani added. They must leave the US immediately and extended illegal stay could lead to a ban.
The protest turned worse at Columbia University and City College of New York on Tuesday (30) where more than 100 protesters were arrested. Most of the arrests happened at Columbia, including two dozen protesters who, according to the police, tried to prevent them from entering the campus.
Jonas Du, editor-in-chief of a student magazine at Columbia, told CNN that the protests on campus are student-fueled irrespective of any outsider involvement.