International students across the US fear re-entry denial if they return home for the holidays

Many international students across the US are not travelling home for the holidays due to concerns about being unable to return amid heightened immigration enforcement, including an expanded travel ban.

Over the past several months, US President Donald Trump has ramped up deportations of foreign residents, including students with valid visas. Even with all of their paperwork in place, many students feel like it’s not worth the risk to leave their university mid-degree to visit loved ones.

"In general, we are advising people who are not US citizens not to travel because it's too difficult to predict what other restrictions this administration will implement," Amina Fields, an immigrants' rights attorney with the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The New Arab.

"We're advising people that it's too risky to travel," she said, adding that this applies not only to foreign travel, but also to domestic air travel, which has been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In November, Iranian scholar Vahid Abedini was arrested and held for three days by ICE as he was set to fly from Oklahoma to Washington, DC, for the annual Middle East Studies Association conference.

Concerns over travel by US-based foreign students date back at least a year, following Trump's 2024 re-election, after he campaigned on "mass deportation" and threatened to crack down on pro-Palestinian student activists.

In March of this year, Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who had been a leader in the Gaza solidarity encampments, was arrested by ICE agents at his flat in New York.

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump posted on his platform Truth Social after Khalil's arrest.

This was followed by several similar arrests of pro-Palestinian student activists, most of whom were not apprehended at an airport.

Some universities have advised their international students not to travel home for the holidays.

Before the summer break, Harvard University, which had been in a dispute with the Trump administration over research funding, advised foreign students, particularly those from Iran and China, to find alternative airports to Boston's Logan Airport. The university also warned them about pro-Palestinian content on their social media accounts, but then suggested that wiping their social media activity could raise suspicion.

With an expanded travel ban issued days before winter break, many students from the affected countries are feeling compelled to stay in place.

"Now with the expansion of the travel ban, I think many, specifically students from countries listed in the ban, may not be able to return [to the US]," said Fields.

In addition to fears about travelling through US airports, many foreign students worry about their daily routines, particularly amid increased ICE agent activity on the streets. This has led to foreign residents missing work and school.

Many have felt compelled to self-deport, making it difficult to quantify the full extent of the administration’s anti-immigrant crackdown.

A significant number of students, particularly those from conflict zones, do not see self-deportation as an option. Instead, they are spending their days, including the winter break, keeping a low profile.

"All students, including international students, should be able to visit their family and friends during the holiday season. Yet many students who are here on visas, especially Black, Muslim and Arab students, may choose to stay in America during the holidays rather than take the risk of travelling overseas." Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of CAIR.

"This is a tragedy. Our government must stop cancelling student visas and trying to ban [people] because of their nationality, religion or peaceful political speech in opposition to [Israel's] genocide," he said.