'More than 100 colleges and universities across the country have reported cases of student visas being revoked by the U.S. State Department, with the department changing the legal status of over 600 international students and recent graduates, according to Inside Higher Ed.

“No president should be allowed to set an ideological litmus test and exclude or remove people from our country who they disagree with,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement.

Several universities have reported that some international students were forced to abruptly leave the United States after discovering — sometimes through a federal database, or via unexpected text messages or emails — that their visas had been canceled. Attorneys representing the affected students say that many lost their visas without any prior notice, explanation, or chance to respond. In many cases, university administrators were also left in the dark, receiving no formal explanation from federal immigration agencies.

Legal advocates say the Trump administration has increasingly revoked visas based on pro-Palestianian sentiment. While legal scholars affirm that international students are entitled to First Amendment protections, their temporary immigration status makes them especially vulnerable to punitive measures related to political speech.

“By surveilling visa and green card holders and targeting them based on nothing more than their protected expression, the administration trades America’s commitment to free and open discourse for fear and silence. Unfortunately, that chill appears to be the administration’s aim,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) wrote on X.'

truthout.org/articles/the-stat…

#freepalestine #fascism #uspol

Israel releases Oscar-winning #Palestinian director after he was attacked by West Bank settlers

By JULIA FRANKEL
Updated 11:55 AM EDT, March 25, 2025

HEBRON, #WestBank (AP) — "#Israeli authorities released an Oscar-winning Palestinian director who was detained by the army after being attacked by #JewishSettlers in the occupied West Bank. He said they beat him in front of his home while they filmed the assault.

"#HamdanBallal and the other directors of '#NoOtherLand,' which looks at the struggles of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, had mounted the stage at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month when it won the award for best documentary film.

"On Tuesday, with bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, he was released from an Israeli police station in the West Bank settlement of #KiryatArba. He and two other Palestinians who had been attacked and detained were taken to a nearby hospital.

"Ballal said he was held at an army base, blindfolded for 24 hours and forced to sleep under a freezing air conditioner.

"'All my body is pain,' he told The Associated Press. “I heard the voices of the soldiers, they were laughing about me … I heard ‘Oscar’ but I didn’t speak Hebrew.'

"Lea Tsemel, the attorney representing the three men, said they received only minimal care for their injuries from the attack and that she had no access to them for several hours after their arrest."

apnews.com/article/israel-pale…
#IDFTerrorism #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #FreePalestine #FreeGaza #IsraeliSettlers