3 more UNLV students have visas revoked; protest blasts Trump administration
Published in News & Features
LAS VEGAS — As UNLV confirmed that another three international students have had their visas revoked, dozens of students, faculty and community members descended on the school’s campus to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown on college campuses and sweeping deportations.
The protest, which began at 11 a.m., was organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Youth Revolutionary Front. People held signs that read “Education not deportation,” and chanted from a long list, including “Black, brown, Asian, white. Same struggle, same fight.” Speakers then took the stage, commending those who showed up and reaffirming their right to protest.
“This movement is about not just students,” Raymond Behnke, a junior at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told the crowd. “It’s about workers. It’s about undocumented families. All these people that we can show solidarity with today, and how we can show that we have support for them, that we’re not going to just stand back while their due process rights are stripped away from them, as their entire lives are stripped away from them.”
Seven UNLV students, both undergraduate and graduate, have had their visas revoked, according to an email sent by a UNLV official to the UNLV community on Monday. The university said that it discovered the revocations through manually checking a student system, and that neither the university nor the student was notified. The email also said that the students’ identities are protected, and they have requested to remain anonymous.
“We’re doing everything we can to support our international students who are federally mandated to leave the U.S., and we continue to check in on them after their departure,” said Lindsey Gruber, the senior executive director of UNLV Global, in Monday’s email. UNLV Global “serves as the gateway for international students and scholars arriving at UNLV,” according to UNLV’s website.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., joined other senators in a Thursday letter calling on President Donald Trump to stop weaponizing antisemitism to attack educational institutions.
“We are extremely troubled and disturbed by your broad and extra-legal attacks against universities and higher education institutions as well as members of their communities, which seem to go far beyond combating antisemitism, using what is a real crisis as a pretext to attack people and institutions who do not agree with you,” she and other senators wrote. “These attacks go far beyond constructive and necessary efforts to support Jewish students on campus during an unprecedented period of domestic antisemitism.”
Stephanie Gentry, a student at the College of Southern Nevada, is an American citizen with an American father, but the fact that she was born in Panama makes her fearful for her safety. Still, she said, it was important for her to speak out.
“If anything were to happen, I’d rather it happen because I’m standing up for what’s right instead of just going about my business,” Gentry said. “I’m not going to just wait for it to affect me and then care. I’m going to care now.”
Gentry wore a yellow vest to show that she was part of the group designated to act as security for the protesters. Protesters were told to direct any police to those in yellow vests to speak on their behalf.
“Sometimes people think that it only matters if there’s 1,000 people out on the streets, if we’re out here in mass numbers. But every little instance of resistance matters, no matter how small,” Gentry said. “It all accumulates into something bigger.”
Greg Clark, who graduated from UNLV in 2017, held a cardboard sign that read: “UNLV Alumni against Trump.”
“How many more are going to be deported from UNLV’s campus before people start to stand up and say what they need to?” Clark said. “People spend a lot of money to go to these universities, and they shouldn’t have to live in fear of being deported.”
In addition to the protest organizers, several people showed up for what they said was their first-ever protest at UNLV. Some took the stage to speak. Other students skateboarded and scootered by the protest without pause.
“Now is the time, if there ever was a time, for everybody to come together,” Clark said.
Professor Ben Leffel took the stage to encourage people to fight against the “brain drain” as well. UNLV has been hit by federal funding cuts that caused research cuts.
“I will always stand up for my undocumented students. It is time for faculty to use our privilege to protect them,” Leffel said.
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