Visas revoked for 4 recent UAA students, university president says

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The federal government revoked the visas of four people affiliated with the University of Alaska Anchorage, according to UA President Pat Pitney.

Pitney wrote in a letter to all university staff and students Monday that the four individuals — including one current student and three recent graduates who are in post-graduation training — had their visas revoked “without prior notice.”

No students at the universities in Fairbanks (UAF) or Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan (UAS) were affected, the president said.

“Our staff are monitoring immigration records daily and are working to support impacted individuals,” Pitney wrote.

However, an attorney with Cascadia cross-border Law Group, Margaret Stock, said she fully expects the problem to soon surface on Alaska’s other campuses.

“I would expect any foreign student who’s currently studying in Alaska to be targeted if they’ve had any interaction with the police of any kind, even if their charges were dismissed, no charges were brought,” Stock said. “If anything shows up in the computer system that a police officer stopped them for something, they should expect to see their status terminated.”

No further details on the identities of the student and graduates were provided.

Pitney added that having a visa revoked does not impact a student’s academic standing in the University of Alaska system.

While no exact reason was given for the visas being revoked, Pitney referenced “recent federal executive actions” for creating “uncertainty and stress many are feeling as a result of recent developments at the federal level.”

“Our international students and scholars are vital members of our community,“ Pitney wrote, ”and we remain fully committed to supporting their success."

Stock said many of the reasons being used to justify the visas being revoked appear to be related to minor traffic infractions such as speeding tickets. That’s why she urges anyone in a position to file suits to do so immediately.

“If people are willing to file a lawsuit, they’re winning right away,” Stock said. “They’re getting a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order because this conduct by the government is so blatantly illegal that it’s taking federal judges just the day to figure out that this is illegal, and they’re issuing injunctions.”

It comes as President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on immigration in the country with the intent to deport people not living here legally.

Trump took office in January, promising a sweeping immigration crackdown. He frequently linked illegal immigration and crime, although studies show immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans.

Trump has repeatedly said his administration is working to remove international gang members, terrorist groups, and drug cartels from the country.

The visa issue is not unique to the Alaska university system; multiple international students in the Lower 48 have also had their visas revoked within the last month, leading to lawsuits against the Trump administration arguing the government denied them due process when it suddenly took away their permission to be in the U.S.

Pitney also said that millions in federal grant money have either been canceled or frozen from federal actions, elaborating that about $3.8 million (1.4%) in grants have been canceled and about $1.6 million have been frozen.

Some grants, however, were reinstated, Pitney wrote. She said “several grants” worth a reported $6.9 million were reinstated thanks to help from the university’s Federal Relations team and Alaska’s congressional delegation.

Pitney said the school’s 10-year, $46 million ADAC-ARCTIC grant — which funds research into dealing with homeland security challenges in the Arctic — was canceled, but the cancelation has been put on hold.

In Pitney’s letter, she urged any students affected to immediately get in touch with the campus’ international student services office to be connected with resources.

Stock said there are additional steps people can take, as well.

“They can try to reach out to the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU chapter here has indicated that they might be interested in helping people,” Stock said. “I don’t know that the ACLU has actually filed A lawsuit for anyone yet, but, they can certainly try to reach out to those folks. They can reach out to private lawyers, but private lawyers are expensive.”

Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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