Many international students studying in the United States have been seeing a series of occurrences on their social media feeds over the last few weeks: plainclothes officers showing up without warning and dragging students away to detention facilities in unmarked vehicles.
Those arrested in a series of high-profile student detentions that were caught on camera have not been charged with any crimes; rather, they seem to have been singled out for participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses.
View the US student visa revocation targets.
According to the Trump administration, visas are a "privilege" that may be cancelled for a number of reasons at any moment.
According to a tracker from Inside Higher Ed, an online news site that covers the industry, more than 1,000 international students or recent graduates at colleges across the US now have their visas revoked or their legal statuses altered, suggesting that the crackdown is much broader than first believed.
Many don't know the exact causes, and colleges sometimes only find out about the changes when they check a government-run database that tracks foreign students' visa status.
Students and teachers told the BBC that campuses across the board, from the largest public colleges to prestigious Ivy League schools, are on edge due to the combination of targeted detentions and allegations of widespread visa revocations.
"I could be next," claimed a Georgetown University student with a visa who has published articles on Israel and the Gaza War.
In case he is ever stopped by police authorities, he has started to keep a card listing his constitutional rights in his pocket.
Another Texas student said that he is terrified to leave his flat, even to go grocery shopping.
Additionally, departments at some schools are suffering as a result of foreign researchers' refusal to return to the US.
Fearing that their identities may be used against them, the majority of pupils the BBC talked to want to remain anonymous.
The Department of Education has been approached by the BBC for comment.
Visa cancellations occur for a variety of reasons. Criminal histories seem to have a role in some situations. According to reports, some incidents have included offences such as exceeding the speed limit. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself has said that "a lot" of individuals targeted had participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
It is a component of a larger White House effort to suppress demonstrators who, according to authorities, made several campuses uncomfortable for Jewish students. Demonstrators are also accused of expressing sympathy for Hamas, a terrorist organisation that has been formally classified by the government.
In late March, Rubio told reporters, "I take away their visas every time I find one of these lunatics." "We do it every day."
The detentions and attempts to deport student protesters have been criticised by civil liberties organisations as a breach of their constitutional rights. Additionally, the students deny any affiliation with Hamas, claiming that they are being singled out for political remarks on the Gaza War and US backing for Israel.
Signs that say "protect our students" have been affixed to lavatory stall doors at Georgetown, giving the tulips and cherry blossom trees that usually herald the entrance of spring on campus a sombre feel.
In March, FBI officials apprehended Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at the institution, outside his house in Virginia. The conflict resolution researcher was charged by the Department of Homeland Security for "promoting antisemitism on social media" and having ties to a "known or suspected terrorist."
This seemed to be a reference to his US-born wife's Palestinian father, who had previously advised the assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
According to Mr Suri's solicitors, he has only had a few encounters with his father-in-law and is being singled out because of his wife's identity.
He was detained after Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident who was apprehended at his residence in New York and is now awaiting deportation from a facility in Louisiana, who organised a student demonstration at Columbia University.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University who co-wrote an opinion piece on Gaza for the student newspaper and was arrested in Massachusetts, is also being held in Louisiana.
Another Columbia student protester, Mohsen Mahdawi, was arrested in Vermont last Monday when he was there for a US citizenship interview. He has a green card, not a student visa, like Mr. Khalil.
The Georgetown student, who knew Mr. Suri, said, "Given the detentions we're witnessing, I believe there is a chance anyone who has been vocal about Palestine can be detained."
According to the White House, people who have engaged in actions that "run counter" to US national interests are being targeted. Officials have invoked a 1952 legislation in Mr. Khalil's case, which gives the government the authority to order someone deported if their presence in the nation may negatively impact US foreign policy.
Described as the "ringleader of chaos" at the campus, the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association praised Mr. Khalil's arrest in a post on X.
According to polling, President Trump has some of his strongest popularity ratings when it comes to immigration. According to recent Reuters and AP-NORC polls, over half of US people support action in that area, which is several points higher than his overall rating.
At the institutional level, universities are also being attacked. After Harvard institution rejected a set of criteria that it said would amount to "surrendering its independence," the White House's task group on countering antisemitism withheld more than $2 billion in financing for the institution this week.
According to Trump officials, Harvard would cease issuing visas to foreign students who want to study there if it does not cooperate with a request for information on specific student visa holders.
According to Georgetown scholar Nader Hashemi, the government's primary objective is "silencing dissent" by scaring potential demonstrators.
The Georgetown student claims that in order to see him get his master's degree in a few weeks, he has begged his parents not to take a plane from India to the US. He is yet to decide if he will go to the event at all.
He has also prepared for the prospect of an unexpected arrest and checks his email every day to see whether he is one of the hundreds of people whose visas have lately been cancelled.
"I have cleared my chats across messaging apps, and I have learnt how to quickly lock my phone in SOS mode," he said.
According to Prof. Hashemi, Georgetown academics have even started to provide extra rooms to students who are concerned about immigration officials visiting their homes.
"This is part of the trauma that I think students are facing," he said.
Students at Tufts University, which is located outside of Boston, Massachusetts, are anticipating what will happen to Ms. Ozturk, who was arrested outside of her residence.
She is shown on camera being stopped by agents on her way to a Ramadan meal celebration, looking bewildered and trembling in terror. She co-wrote an opinion piece last year endorsing the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
Anteri Mejr, a PhD student at Tufts, told the BBC that the moves have had a "chilling effect" and that foreign students she knows who have been abroad to attend conferences or visit their home countries are now reluctant to come back.
"There are students working remotely because they're afraid they can't get back in the country," he said.
A number of students at the University of Texas are afraid due to speculations of ICE raids on academic grounds.
"I'm afraid to go. I'm afraid to attend school. One master's student there said, "I'm afraid to go grocery shopping."
"I'm afraid that if I'm walking, I will be approached by agents in incognito clothes and plain disguise," he said.
He claims he still feels "crippling anxiety" about his writings that are critical of the president, even though he has a green card and has not participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.
"How far does this administration dig through, like, an immigrant's history?" said the man. "What if I did say something and I'm not aware."
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