Vietnamese students in US sweat out Trump’s grim immigration crackdown

Like other Vietnamese students and their foreign friends in the U.S., she is now overwhelmed by the feeling of uncertainty, one that has prevented them from doing regular stuff such as finding a part-time job or planning a summer vacation back at home.

“My school sent an email to students telling us what to do when encountering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when going to school, what to say and how to behave when ICE enters our school, to defend our rights, as ICE can stomp into our school anytime to arrest someone,” she said.

She said many schools in the U.S. have encouraged their students and staff to try to stop ICE from entering their campuses as much as they can.

“With ICE coming to schools, even churches, or knocking on the doors of your cars or your houses, it is a chaotic situation, and no one knows what will happen.”

To protect themselves, many international students have restrained from taking on part-time jobs despite rising prices.

“International students who are working [part-time] without permits are constantly worried about being arrested. Some of them have stopped working.”

Van recently posted a message on Facebook seeking advice about whether it is safe to take a part-time job now, and 90% of the responses said “no.”

“I did not imagine the situation was that stressful.

“I will temporarily put that plan on hold. But prices have risen and I don’t know how far they will increase in the future.”

Over the past month since Trump’s inauguration, his administration has toughened up on a deportation campaign that is projected to become the biggest in the U.S.’s history.

The campaign has brought anxiety to foreigners at large, even legal arrivals like students and documented workers.

According to Euronews, the administration deported 7,300 illegal immigrants during Trump’s first week in office. Over three weeks ICE arrested more than 14,000 people.

Thuan Pham, another Vietnamese student, said his school in South Dakota has asked its students to always bring along all their documents in case the ICE checks on them.

The school’s advisor in charge of international students has advised us to bring along our I-20 Form, which proves that we are a legal international student, and I-94, which proves that we entered the U.S. legally.

The school issued no such warning last year when he (Trump) was not in office.

Before Trump entered the White House for a second time on Jan. 20, many schools in the U.S. already sent emails asking its international students who were out of the country to return.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s office of Global Affairs recommended on Instagram on Nov. 15, right after the election results came, that international students should return to the U.S. before Trump’s inauguration.

It warned that the incoming administration might impose travel bans or restrictions on foreign citizens as early as its first day in power.

At Yale University, the office of international students and scholars organized a seminar on Nov. 20 to address concerns about immigration policies under the new administration.

Thuan, 25, was not too worried until a week ago when his classmate from Tunisia received an email requiring her to return to her country.

She was in a student exchange program in the U.S. and she received the email informing that the program had to end earlier than scheduled, and she had to leave the U.S.

“The email said ‘immediate stop’. They sent the email on Tuesday and demanded she leave by Sunday. She cried so hard. She never imagined that one day she would leave the U.S. in such a manner.”

Along with the crackdown on immigration, the U.S. has also restricted funding for international scholarships, including for student exchange programs that Thuan’s friend was attending.

The U.S. had over 1.1 million international students from 200 countries and territories during the 2023-2024 academic year, the highest figure ever recorded.

Vietnamese accounted for 22,066 of them, the sixth-largest international student community.

Thuan said the draconian immigration measures against foreigners including students are getting “unpredictable” and has started to worry for himself.

“I felt unsafe immediately I read her email. It occupied my head for the whole day. When a person staying in the U.S. legally could be caught in that situation, something similar could happen to me in future.

“If I have to leave the U.S. during my second year, the money and effort that have been spent for me to get here will all go to waste.”

Worrying about possible disruption of their studies in the U.S., both Van and Thuan have canceled plans to return to Vietnam this summer.

They fear that some unexpected developments could lengthen their stay in Vietnam and it would be hard to renew their visa to return to the U.S.

Both said they feel safer staying put.

“I am worried that when I try come back to the U.S. after vacationing in Vietnam, it will be complicated, especially if I need to extend my visa or apply for a new visa,” Van said.

“All regulations for immigrants and international students in the U.S. have been tightened. There are more conditions to get a visa now, such as you need to achieve a certain GPA, and officers will look more carefully into whether your activities during your time in the U.S. were within the scope of your rights, like whether you had taken any part-time jobs.

The U.S. used to allow people whose visa had expired up to 48 months earlier to apply for renewal via post without an interview.

But starting this year the window has been shortened to 12 months.

“If your visa expired more than 12 months ago you will need to interview,” Thuan said.

He said he had heard that if an international student is out of the U.S. for more than six months their student status would become invalid.

Thuan has been away from home for two years, but has sadly decided to delay a visit further due to the draconian new policies.

He said his U.S. sojourn cost his family a lot of money given that the tuition fee for an international student like him is two or three times that for a local student, and so he would avoid anything that might disrupt his studies.

“Coming back to Vietnam now is a risk I will not take,” Thuan said.

“The door to enter the U.S. is narrow.”