An international student at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) recently had their visa revoked, but the institution was not told the reason why, according to a letter from college president Crystal Williams.
“Amid the current landscape of rapidly changing immigration policies, RISD’s Office of International Students and Scholar Affairs (ISSA) routinely reviews the internal and government records of our international students,” Williams wrote in a letter to the RISD community on April 7. “Unfortunately, today we learned of one student whose international status was marked ‘terminated,’ a formal designation that reflects the revocation of a student’s visa status in the U.S.”
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Williams’ letter said RISD has not been told why the student’s visa was terminated, but noted school officials are aware “other international students and scholars in the United States are experiencing similar changes to their statuses with no clear specific reason(s) given for the terminations.”
RISD also did not publicly disclose the student’s name in order to protect their privacy, according to Williams.
When ARTnews asked RISD for further comment, a spokesperson pointed to the college’s web page on additional guidance and resources on federal regulations and executive orders, noting that it was currently undergoing additional updates today and tomorrow.
The spokesperson also confirmed that 33 percent of RISD’s current student population is international students, which is on par for many of the country’s top art schools. According to recent statistics, international students make up 50 percent of the student body at School of the Visual Arts, 35 percent at the Parsons School of Design, 30 percent at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), 29 percent at the School at the Art Institute of Chicago, and 29 percent at the Pratt Institute.
For several weeks, the Trump administration has revoked visas to international students attending colleges and universities around the country. Soon after President Donald Trump started his second term, Reuters reported that he asked immigration officials to tighten visa vetting procedures, likely resulting in slower processing times, more documentation, requests for evidence, and longer waiting times for visas, including F-1 and J-1 student visas. An executive order issued by Trump on January 30 also said the federal government would revoke the student visas for anyone who joined pro-Palestine protests.
On March 28, Secretary of State Marco Rubio estimated he had revoked at least 300 visas of students, visitors, and other persons on the basis of their views on foreign policy or criminal activity. He also ordered US diplomats to scour the social media accounts of international applicants for student and other types of visas. There have also been multiple reported cases of students with revoked visas being taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
However, a number of schools across the country have said that some of the students with cancelled visas had no known ties to activism. According to the Boston Globe, which first reported on the RISD student’s visa being revoked, some of the visa revocations in New England and around the country appear to involve students with minor legal encounters, such as trespassing arrests or traffic violations.
The US State Department declined to offer details to the Boston Globe on the cases reported in Massachusetts, including the one at RISD, on Monday.
“The United States has zero tolerance for non-citizens who violate US laws,” a State Department spokesperson told the Boston Globe. “Those who break the law, including students, may face visa refusal, visa revocation, and/or deportation.”
On April 8, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked by a reporter at a press briefing about the criteria used to determine the student visa cancellations, but she wouldn’t go into the specifics on the visa process or individual cases, citing privacy issues.
“What we can tell you is that the department revokes visas every day in order to secure our borders and to keep our community safe, and we’ll continue to do so,” Bruce said. “The criteria, as it is, is applied appropriately.”
The State Department did not respond to ARTnews’s request for further comment.
William’s letter said RISD’s ISSA office contacted the student directly with an offer to “help identify possible legal resources, and to the extent possible, support the student throughout this difficult moment.”
In addition to visa revocations, economists and immigration experts have expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s policies limiting free speech, discouraging international travel, longer visa processing times, as well as far fewer employment prospects for international students and art professionals due to the high cost of sweeping new tariffs.
Update, April 9, 2025: This article has been updated to include a quote from US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce about student visa cancellations from a press briefing on April 8.
