Fearing deportation, international students go silent at California’s universities

INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS are learning that speech isn’t as free as they thought in the United States. After President Donald Trump began his second term, hundreds of international students lost their student status as part of an executive order cracking down on immigration and alleged antisemitism. 

While lawsuits resulted in many of those students having their status reinstated since April, the uncertainty of it happening again has created fear among international students, particularly within the University of California system, where international students make up 13.6% of student enrollment as of Fall 2024.