WA Dem Party chair claims Trump’s revocation of student visas ‘cruel and wrong’

Conrad said in a statement, “Today’s actions by the Trump administration stripping visas from international students at the University of Washington without warning or cause pose insurmountable barriers to the education of these students and the academic community at one of our nation’s foremost research institutions.”

She called the moves “cruel and wrong,” adding, “I applaud the University of Washington for offering these students legal and mental health resources and call upon our elected leaders to do everything possible to protect these students and ensure they receive the due process they are entitled to under the US Constitution.”

“Republicans in Congress are abdicating their responsibility to provide oversight and accountability to this lawless administration, and it is up to the rest of us to ensure these abuses are recorded and opposed,” she continued.

On Tuesday, five students and four recent graduates at UW had their visas revoked by the federal government without prior notice to the university or the students. UW said in a statement that the university “…will continue to support them and provide the resources they need to be to able learn, teach and succeed here.”

According to the statement, “In a situation like this, the relevant campus’ international student services office immediately reaches out to the affected individual to encourage them to contact the office as soon as possible so that we can connect them with information and resources. These resources include access to legal services available to students as part of their student fees, as well as mental health and academic support.”

Officials stated, “No additional information or details were provided, but we have no indication these actions are due to activism or other protected free speech,” however, many speculated that the revocations were part of the US State Department’s move to revoke the visas of foreign students who targeted Jews on American college campuses.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously announced that he was revoking the visas of at least 300 foreign students, warning that if a student comes to the US to “create a ruckus,” they will be kicked out. He told reporters, “It might be more than 300 at this point,” adding, “We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.”

The US Department of Education previously warned UW and dozens of other schools to “protect Jewish students” or lose federal funding. An October report showed widespread antisemitism on the UW campus, and the university was among many schools that settled civil rights complaints with President Joe Biden’s Department of Education in January, before President Trump took office, with no punishments for the universities.

Pressure has mounted on UW to address rampant antisemitism on campus. Instead, the administration has worked with anti-Israel figures on and off-campus, including a professor known for cheering on violent anti-Israel protests. UW previously caved to the demands of a violent Gaza encampment that took over the campus quad for three weeks and agreed to form the “Faculty Committee on Scholarship of Palestine” to “examine opportunities to deepen our expertise in the scholarship of Palestine into a range of existing academic units.”

This week, it was also reported that two Gonzaga University students also had their visas revoked, as well as a graduate of Washington State University and three recent graduates of Seattle University.

Conrad was previously criticized for issuing a statement calling the violent Gaza camp at UW "peaceful" while opposing any actions that would violate campers' "First Amendment rights."

Last year, Conrad presided over her party’s state assembly passing an anti-Israel resolution, condemning the Jewish state for its “disproportionate response” to the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and called for funding to be reinstated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) that lost funding from multiple governments after it was revealed that their employees participated in the atrocities.