As of Thursday, April 10, 17 international students at the City University of New York (CUNY) have had their visas revoked by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Per a statement released by the university, they face a “change in visa status” — with no clear explanation. This attack follows the escalating situation at Columbia University where five visas and two green cards have been revoked so far. 

CUNY is one of the largest public university systems in the United States with 25 campuses serving each borough of New York City. The student body at CUNY is heavily represented by working-class and immigrant students. Visa revocations were also reported at the State University of New York (SUNY), another public university,  as well as at New York University.

All of these campuses have been at the center of the movement for Palestine, fighting against the genocide, as well as to divest our institutions from the State of Israel. 

Since the green card revocation and detainment of Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil last month, over 300 student visas at universities across the U.S. have been revoked. Many  are the result of a direct attack on free speech in support of Palestine but a lot more have not been supported by any evidence or reason from the DHS or the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

We have insisted since the abduction of Khalil that an attack on one is an attack on all. The repression at Columbia University has proven to be a blueprint for attacks by the American bourgeoisie on a powerful nationwide anti-imperialist student movement. Eight CUNY students arrested during the Gaza Solidarity Encampment last year still face felony charges and potentially up to seven years of imprisonment.

CUNY students run the city with their labor; very few of them are able to afford a break from work while enrolled in college. International CUNY students like myself living in similar material conditions face debilitating employment restrictions which often leaves us in a uniquely precarious position. This is an egregious attack that we must fight. 

Students and workers at CUNY, in New York, and across the country need to stand up against these attacks on students. The leaders of the labor movement have failed the working class, cozying up to Trump and Genocide Joe. Only self-organization among the working class, independent of both capitalist parties, can create a strong resistance to the rise of the Far Right.