By Emily Nixon
Voicing differing opinions has always been the lifeblood of America: The country was founded by a group of dissenting men wanting a better life for their fellow colonists. By extension, one could say that protesting has always been a sacred ritual to Americans, but that ritual is in danger.
On March 29, the Associated Press (AP) reported that a private company based in the U.S. was using an artificial intelligence program using facial recognition to “unmask” student protestors.
Subsequently, the U.S. Government revoked 1,879 students’ visas – 17 of those visas being from CUNY students – according to an article by Inside Higher Ed.
Official reasoning for the revocation of student visas varied from speeding tickets to parking violations, according to Noam Abrahams, president of Undergraduate Student Government (USG) at Brooklyn College (BC).
“It was a nationwide thing,” said Abrahams. “They did like a big sweep. Pretty much anyone with like a parking or speeding ticket, like a misdemeanor, got their visa revoked.”
While there was legal standing for the visas to be revoked, it was not common practice to revoke students’ visas over small, non-violent infractions, according to Abrahams.
“It’s like technically, vaguely grounds legally, but they’ve just never enforced like a parking violation as a you broke the law,” said Abrahams. “Because that’s [not breaking the law] one of the conditions of being on a visa technically.”
Despite the use of official reasoning to revoke the visas, many students maintain that the visas were suspended as retaliation for protesting the Israel-Palestine Conflict, even to Abrahams.
“My understanding is obviously some of those visa revocations were about protesting,” said Abrahams. “My understanding was actually a vast majority of them were for quote unquote minor infractions is what it said in all the news articles.”
As of April 25, the federal government has received multiple judicial orders to restore the affected students’ visa status as well as their records in the system they had been booted from, according to Inside Higher Ed.
All of that said, many students have wondered: What’s being done to protect their First Amendment rights?
“We [Brooklyn College] stand by students’ right to protest under the First Amendment,” said Catherine Freeland, BC admin press person. “The open and free exchange of ideas is critical to the vitality of any academic community. The college respects and protects the ability of individuals to exercise their right to free expression.”
In addition to the BC Administration’s oath to protect and uphold their students’ rights to protest peacefully, Freeland led students to resources for information regarding their rights and legal help should students run into issues.
“We encourage those students who engage in protest to familiarize themselves with their rights and to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves,” Freeland told The Vanguard. “In addition to the Know Your Rights workshops we host on campus, we recommend students consider these recommendations from NYCLU. For students who may need legal representation or consultation, they can seek support through CUNY Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility project (CLEAR) at CUNY Law.”
In addition to providing resources, the BC Administration has been meeting consistently and talking about what response they can utilize to help combat the challenges students face in the world today, according to Abrahams.
“I am in a weekly committee. It meets every single Thursday, where it’s like me, a couple faculty, a bunch of the top administrators at the college – Jesus from ISSO [Immigrant Student Success Office], the head of the study abroad office, the president, legal counsel, the provost, like really everybody, where we just discuss like how we can best protect immigrant and international students,” said Abrahams. “We’ve been doing it since December [2024], and every meeting, we work on as much as we can.”
The BC Administration is not the only organization watching the visa situation and formulating responses to the new actions taken by the Trump Administration, according to Abrahams.
“There’s this organization called USS, which is a CUNY-wide student government that I also sit on as a delegate,” said Abrahams. “Our last meeting was this past Sunday, […] and they’ve been in discussion with the Vice Chancellor of International Students, and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, and Vice Chancellor of Legal at CUNY to make sure and talk about everything that’s been going on.”
Many of the actions and statements BC can take are reactionary due to the delay of communication or lack thereof, according to Abrahams.
“The delegate to USS from the School of Public Health was like, ‘yeah, I heard from our office that it [visa revocations] happened here, it’s largely reactionary,” said Abrahams. “Especially now, it’s so impossible to predict whatever’s gonna happen.”
Despite the looming dangers, CUNY is steadfast in its pursuit to protect its students from any internal threats, especially immigrant and non-citizen students, according to Abrahams.
“Nowhere in the entire CUNY system exists any sort of list that hosts whether people are undocumented, immigrants, first generation, none of it is stored internally, so that way it’s safe from subpoena,” said Abrahams. “CUNY has been doing a huge review of basically all the documentation it has to try and wipe out any list that reasonably could be used as a proxy for that.”
CUNY’s reach can only extend so far for its students, according to Abrahams.
“That [the review of student demographics documentation] doesn’t apply to student visas,” said Abrahams. “If you have a student visa, you’re registered with the government.”
One of the main stressors for student-led organizations, such as USG, is the fact that they are all students working on their studies and representing their fellow students at the same time, according to Abrahams.
“We’re student-led. We don’t have any staff members,” said Abrahams. “Sometimes, I wish we did. It would be really helpful to have someone with a higher education administration degree to step in and be like, ‘well, here’s like law and stuff, right?’”
While Abrahams acknowledged the importance of giving statements to students, he warned that it is a dangerous balancing act for the college to partake in.
“Sure, a public statement might make students feel more comfortable to see,” said Abrahams. “But, in actuality, it [the statement] puts them in more danger. […] The bigger someone, like the louder someone is, the more likely someone who doesn’t like it will notice. That applies to students protesting, and that also applies to the college making statements.”
Both the BC Administration and USG stand firm in their goal to protect and support their student body, according to Abrahams.
“I feel confident enough saying that we, as a college, are going to try our best to do as much as we can to keep our students safe,” said Abrahams. “Whether that work is visible or a little behind the scenes.”
Students interested in learning more about upcoming KnowYourRights workshops should visit the USG Instagram page @bcstudentgov, as well as ISSO’s Instagram page, @issobc.