After an announcement over the weekend that the Trump administration has revoked the visas of some 44 international students at UC campuses, UC-AFT joined with our faculty allies from CUCFA (Council of University of California Faculty Associations) to demand that President Drake and the leadership of the UC act urgently to protect our students. With some 50,000 international students and faculty members across the UC at risk, we demand concrete actions to protect their legal rights, including:
- that the University should guarantee that each campus can and will provide legal support for those whose visas are revoked.
- UC must ensure that any student whose visa and/or legal status is revoked and who is either detained or deported can remain enrolled at their campus and can remotely continue their program of study until its completion, whether undergraduate or graduate.
- if any student or scholar receiving a fellowship, stipend, or salary from the University is deported, they continue to receive that funding until the end of their contract or relevant course of study.
- any staff or faculty member whose visa is revoked and who is detained and/or deported be given the opportunity to work remotely, to remain on the payroll and continue to receive their salary.
- the University, as sponsor of the legal status of international students and scholars, seek action in the federal courts to halt termination of legal status without due process or prior communication to the University.
We reiterated our call that the university refuse to comply with any orders to disclose personal information of students, scholars, staff, or faculty or otherwise cooperate with this lawless administration and their efforts to terrorize our campuses.
