The U.S. welcomed Indian students. Under Trump, they fear for their future.

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NEW DELHI – In 2023, a recent college graduate from India was pulled over by police for driving without a license. It could now cost him his future in America.

He had just earned his master’s degree from Lindsey Wilson College, in Kentucky, and was enrolled in the federal Optional Practical Training program (OPT), which allows international graduates to work in the United States. After paying a $1,200 fine for the infraction, he thought the matter was behind him.

Two years later, the former student, now 28 and working as an engineer in Atlanta, was informed that his visa had been revoked and he could no longer stay in the country.

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“I came here legally and made one small mistake, but I am not a criminal,” said the engineer, who is from Hyderabad, a technology hub in southern India. Like others in this report, he spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing legal retaliation from U.S. authorities.

“This government has really scared us,” he said. “We have no idea what they will do next.”

As President Donald Trump has moved quickly to overhaul America’s immigration system, his administration terminated the legal status of thousands of international students – known as SEVIS records – and in some cases revoked their visas. In certain instances, the government has cited students’ past legal violations, some as minor as parking tickets, while in other cases no reason has been provided.

After a wave of legal challenges, the Department of Homeland Security reversed course last month, saying it would restore SEVIS records. But the engineer, and others who have already lost their visas, say they remain in limbo.

“Whenever an individual’s visa is revoked, he or she may reapply at one of our consulates or embassies overseas at any time,” the State Department press office said in a statement to The Washington Post.

The United States hosts more than 300,000 students from India, more than from any other country; nearly 100,000 Indians are employed through the OPT program. Half of the 327 visa revocation cases tracked by the American Immigration Lawyers Association involved Indian nationals. The Post spoke to 10 Indian students who are studying in the United States or applying to American universities about how the crackdown has upended their lives and changed their plans.

“The message from the government was ‘We don’t want your best and brightest,’” said Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer representing 133 international students who have had their legal status revoked, roughly a third of whom are from India.

Ravi Lothumalla, an educational consultant in Dallas, is part of three WhatsApp groups, each with at least 200 Indian students, where members share updates on their cases and compare legal advice.

“Trump is clearly taking this very seriously,” Lothumalla said.

International students also have been targeted for their political views. About a dozen so far have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, an activity the administration says is tantamount to supporting terrorism.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live & study in the United States of America,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “When you break our laws and advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”

The arrest of Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University accused of spreading “Hamas propaganda,” and the visa revocation of Columbia University graduate student Ranjani Srinivasan after pro-Palestinian posts on social media have also sent a chill through Indian student communities.

Many who came to study and stayed to work now wonder if they have a future here.

“It is still a lot of chaos,” said the engineer in Atlanta, who lost his job when he lost his immigration status. “Every day is a nightmare.”

Living in fear

America’s world-class university system has long made it a destination for ambitious students from around the world. More than 1 million international students contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy in the past academic year, according to NAFSA (formerly the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers).

Kuck, the immigration lawyer, said the administration’s policies could rapidly erode the country’s competitive advantage: “Indian students are going to start saying, ‘You know what, I think I am going to learn German.’”

An Indian graduate student at an Ivy League institution said she and others had begun drafting contingency plans – finishing degrees abroad or applying for jobs in Europe. In April, her university said in a campuswide email that at least three students had their SEVIS records terminated.

“I don’t want to live in fear,” she said, “where you have to watch and think about every little thing you do.”

“We used to think of America as a place where we could build a career,” said another Indian student, 31, who is pursuing a graduate degree in New York. “That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.”

She said she was reminded of a 2016 crackdown at Jawaharlal Nehru University, in New Delhi, where student leaders were arrested and branded as “anti-nationals” by the government for demonstrating against death sentences for accused Kashmiri separatists. “This is a copy-paste of that,” she said.

As pro-Palestinian protests swept across the country last year, the student at the Ivy League college said, she and her classmates had expected that administrators would defend their right to free speech. “We were really, really wrong,” she said.

Another 31-year-old Indian student at a Northeastern university has canceled a trip home this summer, fearing he might not be allowed to return. He is now expanding his academic network to Canada and South Africa.

“There’s no desire on my part to continue an intellectual relationship with this country after I leave,” he said. “The anti-intellectual force of this administration has hollowed out what used to be the center of academic life.”

Legal limbo

Some students targeted for deportation have lived in the United States for many years and are now struggling to navigate the complexities of the immigration system.

Another engineer from Hyderabad, 27, had worked for Google, Cognizant and a federal consulting firm after graduating from Kent State University in 2022. In January, while out socializing in Fredericksburg, Texas, he agreed to drive home a friend who had injured his leg, despite being “slightly tipsy.” He was pulled over, arrested for driving under the influence and released the next day on bail.

His visa was revoked in March; in April, he received an email directing him to “self-deport.”

“I can’t stay in the country because of the visa revocation, but I can’t leave the country because I need to appear in court,” the former Google employee said. “No one knows what to do.”

India’s Ministry of External Affairs in March urged citizens abroad to comply with local laws and asked host countries to ensure due process. But officials in New Delhi have made no public comment about U.S. efforts to revoke the immigration status of Indian students.

“Why hasn’t my country responded?” the former Google employee wondered. “It’s affecting so many of us.”

Anthony Renzulli, a former director for India at the National Security Council, warned that the crackdown could fundamentally alter the relationship between the two countries.

“The number of Indian foreign students is inevitably going to decline,” he said. “It cuts into the very foundation of the U.S.-India partnership – the people-to-people ties.”

January saw a 50 percent drop in visas issued to Indian students as compared with the previous year, according to State Department figures.

“The loss to the U.S. is incalculable,” said Renzulli.

Many students said their belief in the United States has been deeply, and irreversibly, shaken.

“Even if one saw problems in America, there was always a faith in the institutional and legal mechanisms,” said the graduate student in the Northeast. “That is now gone.”

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