Governor Stitt backs Trump, calling activists “crazies.”
Oklahoma State University released a statement on Apr. 8 saying that the federal government had revoked 8 of their international students’ visas, which was followed by Oklahoma Central University and Oral Roberts University declaring that a number of their students — four at OCU and two at ORU — had also been affected. In fact, since the beginning of 2025, over 1,300 foreign national students have had their visas or statuses revoked for reasons that were not made clear to the majority of their universities; most only discovered the change by checking the federal database. Others, like four international students at the University of Oregon, were told that their visas had been revoked on “unspecified criminal charges,” of which the universities were not made aware until the visa status changed online. The only explanation made on behalf of the federal government so far has come from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “They’re here to go to class,” says Rubio, “they’re not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine our universities.” He has stated several times that participating in protests is unacceptable behavior for international students.
While the University of Tulsa has not yet declared any students affected by this development, there are still changes to the atmosphere. Pictures at international events like the upcoming International Extravaganza have been banned, and I was unable to find anyone in our international program who was willing to give an interview as students all across the country feel the pressure of this new threat to their education.
Despite the growing concern and seeming lack of legal grounds for the revocation of these student visas, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has placed his full support behind the Trump Administration’s decision making while still making sure to wash his hands of the situation. On Apr. 9, the day after OSU first declared some of their students’ visas were revoked, Stitt said in a press conference, “we [the state government] don’t really have any control, it’s not like we can say ‘hey don’t revoke this, uh, visa.’” Regardless, he said he “totally trust[s] President Trump that they vetted those” students and that Trump would only revoke a visa if there was “some kind of criminal activity, something is happening with those visas…that’s a danger to the United States of America.” Stitt’s idea of a threat to the United States, notably, is protected under the First Amendment of the United States’ Constitution: protesting. “We see it on the TV,” Stitt declared, “we see these crazies doing some kind of crazy protests and anti-Semitism … people getting out of line.”
Protesters, especially those who are either pro-Palestine, anti-Israel or both, have been a major focus of the Trump Administration’s more controversial deportations and immigration crackdowns. Most notably, this has been reflected in the case of Mahmoud Kahlil, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York who is in the process of being deported for leading completely legal and constitutionally protected peaceful protests against the genocide in Palestine. Khalil’s deportation is unconstitutional not only because of its questionability around freedom of speech but because of the fact that Khalil is a green card holder with a pathway to citizenship and cannot legally be deported unless he violated immigration law or committed a severe crime, which he has not done.
The bottom line here is that the federal government is breaking the rule of law. Once inherent to our country’s philosophy of governance, the idea of a president being under the constraint of law has fallen apart in recent years and now the overreaches have become extreme. Protesting in colleges is not “unamerican,” it is actually one of the most American things one can do at a college. It certainly should not come with the threat of deportation, and it is absolutely bizarre, dictatorial and unjust to deport a permanent resident like Mahmoud Khalil over partaking in free speech. Regardless of your political leanings, this should upset you. Aside from being terrible for the universities like ours, which rely on the tuition money, academic grants and athletes that the international program brings in, it is a major infringement of free speech that is opening the door to more of its kind. If it is not met with sufficient outrage, the consequences will absolutely affect all of us — foreign and domestic.
