Tae Heung “Will” Kim, a doctoral student at Texas A&M University and longtime US permanent resident, has been in ICE detention for over one month. The AAUP stands with the Texas AAUP state conference in demanding Mr. Kim’s release.
Mr. Kim’s case is symbolic of both the Trump administration’s draconian approach to immigration enforcement and its unprecedented attack on international students and faculty. Mr. Kim, a scientist conducting research on Lyme disease, is a student in good standing.
The Trump administration’s actions with regard to Mr. Kim and others have had reverberating impacts across campuses. Since at least February 2025, not only have international students struggled to obtain visas, but many have not applied or declined acceptance because of fears stoked both by the government’s ideological deportation policy and by the seemingly arbitrary detention of students like Mr. Kim. The long-term impacts of these trends on the vitality of higher education in the US cannot be understated.