Columbia University Provost Angela Olinto announced the news through a campus-wide email in which she said the university learned of the revocations "over the past two days" but did not know when the students' visas were revoked, Anadolu Agency reported.
Olinto said that campus officials were not notified of the visa terminations by the Trump administration and that they only found out about the action through "proactive daily checks" of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).
SEVIS is an online system run by DHS that tracks and monitors the records and information of international students in the United States.
Olinto said the International Students and Scholars Office is "monitoring the situation closely" by notifying students of changes in their SEVIS status and connecting them with external legal assistance.
She also referenced various media reports that said the Department of Homeland Security was targeting students for participating in pro-Palestinian protests or for minor criminal infractions and that international students were being stripped of their entry visas and being told directly by DHS to leave the country immediately.
"The federal government has begun taking action to terminate visa eligibility for international students across the country for alleged incidents, including minor traffic violations," said Olinto.
MA/PR
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