Number of Colorado students whose visas were revoked increases; State Department responds to questions

Colorado State University said on Wednesday that an additional student had their visa revoked after several were revoked a day earlier. The Department of State acknowledged the revocations but still won't say why these students' visas were revoked.

On Tuesday, CSU and the University of Colorado said a total of nine international students -- five at CSU and four at CU between its Boulder and Colorado Springs campuses -- had their visas revoked by the Department of Homeland Security. On Wednesday, CSU told CBS News Colorado that number had increased to six.

The Department of Homeland Security still has not responded to a request for comment, but the Department of State provided a statement that read, in part, "Due to privacy and other considerations, and visa confidentiality, we generally will not comment on Department actions with respect to specific cases."

"The United States has zero tolerance for non-citizens who violate U.S. laws. Those who break the law, including students, may face visa refusal, visa revocation, and/or deportation," the department continued.

It would not say, however, if any of the students whose visas were revoked are accused of a crime or why their visas were revoked.

CU and CSU also said they would not be identifying the students, citing privacy concerns. The Colorado School of Mines, Metropolitan State University, and the University of Denver said none of their students were impacted.

Ella Smith, a CSU student and organizer with Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, says she knows the CSU students whose visas were revoked and that five out of the six of them have already returned voluntarily to their home countries. Two of them, she said, were from Saudi Arabia and the others were also from the broader Middle East region.

She said CSU and Students for Justice in Palestine's attorneys advised them to return home as quickly as possible.

Smith went on to say that the students did participate in protests over Israel's siege and bombing of Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, but none of them committed any crimes, engaged in vandalism, or ever had any interaction with police.

On Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian militant group Hamas broke through the border wall into Israel and raided a music festival and several communities in southern Israel. About 1,200 Israelis were killed, and 251 were taken captive -- 105 of them have since been returned. In the time since, Israel has killed over 50,000 people in Gaza.

Protests over Israel's actions and the U.S. government's support have taken place around the world, including across Colorado, most notably on college campuses.

"We think that the fact that students can lose their visas -- lose the things that allow them to be in this country -- simply because they were exercising their First Amendment rights to nonviolently, peacefully, legally protest against and active and ongoing genocide is vile," Smith told CBS Colorado on Wednesday. "It's disgusting."

Michelle Stanley, interim vice provost for undergraduate affairs at CSU, told CSU's independent student newspaper, The Collegian, "they're safe," and that one student has not left yet.

"We brought them, we escorted them to the airport, and we got them through security," she told The Collegian. "This is very new for us, and we're learning and we're reacting and we're planning."

Federal student visa data from the Department of Homeland Security shows that about 1,300 -- about 12% of Colorado's approximately 10,300 international students -- are from the region, which DHS classifies as "Western Asia." The overwhelming majority of those are from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, with 571 and 475, respectively, the latest data from DHS shows.

Smith denounced the federal government's revocation of the visas as "ridiculous."

"We think that this is a direct violation of First Amendment rights and also rights to visas and rights to due process," Smith said. "I, as an individual, as a Jewish individual, am absolutely sickened by what's happening right now."

"They are just students. They're just people who deserve to go to school," she said.

Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that 300 student visas have been revoked. Many, if not all, of those revocations were related to students who participated in campus protests, despite questions about due process and First Amendment objections.

His comments come in response to questions about the high-profile arrests of students, including Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Alireza Doroudi.

F-1 visas -- the type that were revoked in this case -- allow international students to study at U.S. universities. Their revocation, at least in some cases, has raised First Amendment concerns, as they appear to be targeting students who were involved in protests but have not been accused of any crimes.

Rubio cited a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act that authorizes the nation's top diplomat to revoke the visas of foreign national students whose presence or alleged activities have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences" for the U.S.

The Department of State referred follow-up questions on Wednesday about the reason for the students' visas being revoked to the Department of Homeland Security, which has not responded to several emails.

A spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis sent CBS Colorado the following statement: "The Governor urges President Trump to focus on deporting dangerous criminals and for Congress to do their jobs and pass comprehensive immigration reform that secures our border and creates a path to stable legal residency that is clear and appropriately applied."