Institutions Should Support Students Under Visa Threats with Legal Aid and Housing

In response to the Trump administration's recent actions subjecting more than one thousand international students to visa revocations or other involuntary changes to their immigration status, the AAUP has written to college and university counsels to clarify that they are not legally bound to deny legal assistance or housing to students facing these threats. While some institutions have provided support to noncitizen students in such cases, others have hesitated to do so for fear of being held criminally liable. The AAUP letter addresses concerns that colleges and universities may have about "harboring" individuals vulnerable to threats of detention or deportation by the Trump administration.

Precedents set by the US Supreme Court in United States v. Hansen and in other federal and state cases make explicit distinctions between appropriate and improper or illegal actions, such as "misrepresentation or fraud." As the AAUP letter notes, "the provision of good faith legal advice is not only essential to the basic functioning of the legal system, but it is also very likely constitutionally protected expression." Institutions carrying out their customary function as housing providers, honoring existing residential agreements, are not engaged in deliberately concealing students, and "federal courts have held uniformly that renting housing to a person in the ordinary course of business does not violate federal harboring law." 

Colleges or universities should not hesitate to provide legitimate and lawful assistance to students who have had their visas revoked, their records removed from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database, or other involuntary changes made to their legal status. At a time when the Trump administration has called for detention and deportation of noncitizens without due process, singling out individuals for their political sympathies or activities, students need appropriate support from their institutions.

Read the full letter here.