An AI doctoral candidate in California says they had their student visa revoked
An AI doctorate student in California had terminated his Sevis record – the digital proof of their valid student visa – which endangered their immigration status.
Speaking with WAN, the student, who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals, said that they were informed through the international student center of their lectures that they had been identified in a check of a criminal records. The student said that they had been studying in the US for almost a decade, starting as a student, and that they have no criminal record.
“The most likely cause can be an interaction with the police many years ago, even before I went to the Graduate School,” the student said. “I was researched in the field of AI and intended to continue my research after my graduation.”
In recent months, More than a thousand international students in the US have challenged their visa statuses by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the enforcement of immigration and customs as part of an aggressive performance orchestrated by the Trump administration. In many cases, colleges are not immediately informed by the relevant federal agencies, as a result of which students have little notice – or appeal.
Yisong Yue, a professor in the field of Machine Learning to Caltech, told WAN that the hard position of the American government compared to Studentvisa ‘the talent pipeline is damaging’.
“The cumulative effect is making the US a considerably less attractive destination for many talented researchers,” Yue said. “Because research is very specialized, when a doctoral student is removed from a project, it can reduce the project for months or years. In addition to the specific students and projects, many students on Visa are delivered.”
Few settings have been spared by the performance. According to reportsStudents who go to Ivy League universities, large public colleges and small free arts of arts have suspended their visas. While the government has accused some Of these students from supporting Palestinian militant groups or performing “anti -Semitic” activities, others are on the target Small legal violationsSuch as speeding offenses or other traffic violations.
Some cancellations seem to be administrative errors. ReportedlyA student, Suguru Onda, an computer -promotional PhD student at Brigham Young University, had his withdrawn student visa recover shortly after their immigration lawyer had brought a lawsuit. The lawyer, Adam Crayk, said The government uses AI to screen visa holders without human verification, leading to errors.
Last week a judge in Georgia a temporary resting prohibition given In the case of around 100 international students whose visas were withdrawn and the government instructed the legal status of the students. However, the ruling only applies to a fraction of students who run the risk of deportation and can be challenged along the line.
Yue noted that international students contributed to many recent technical breakthroughs in AI. Ashish Vaswani, who moved to the US in the early 2000s to study computer science, is one of the co-makers of the transformer, the groundbreaking AI model architecture that supports chatbots such as Chatgpt. One of the co-founders of OpenAi, Wojciech Zaremba, obtained his PhD in AI from NYU on a student visa.
A Recent analysis Due to the non-profit Educational Association, NAFSA found that international students at American colleges and universities during the Academy Year 2023-2024 supported $ 43.8 billion to the domestic economy and supported more than 378,000 jobs.
Yue says that he has “had several conversations” with Senior AI researchers who are concerned about the stay in the United States.
“This includes professors at top universities and researchers from companies such as OpenAi, Google, etc.,” he added. “The cumulative effect of government actions is making the US a considerably less attractive destination for many talented researchers.”
