GEO Demands for Non-citizens

GEO condemns the federal government’s recent anti-immigrant actions, including the revocation of international student visas, the termination of SEVIS status, and the introduction of a registration requirement for undocumented immigrants. We acknowledge that the situation is constantly changing, yet as the administration has stated, complacency is not a solution, even in the face of confusion and uncertainty.

As the International Student and Scholar Services Director Martin McFarlane confirmed in an email to all international students, faculty, staff, and scholars on April 7th, 2025, actions taken by federal immigration authorities that result in the termination of visa status without notice to the individual, for often trivial reasons, have impacted students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The administration has not responded to the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO)-Local 6300 IFT/AFT AFL-CIO information request as to precisely how many individuals have been affected and how many of them are graduate workers. Sources close to our labor union, the GEO at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have shared the most updated figure of 48 individuals affected by status terminations as of April 17th, 2025. We have heard verbally from the administration that all of these statuses have been restored. We urge the administration to make a formal announcement confirming this news to our campus community.

The temporary reprieve offered by the Trump administration to back down from this current wave of SEVIS status/visa recommendations in order to allow ICE to develop a policy that will “provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations,” allows our own university to develop and establish a parallel framework to ensure safety and well-being for its international student body. This should be of high priority at the public university with the second largest international student population in the United States.

The actions by the administration to date, in which the university simply stated to affected students that upon revocation of their visa status, “you should consider making plans to exit the United States immediately” and “all employment authorization on- or off- campus ends immediately when your visa status is terminated,” were misleading and unjust, and caused drastic and damaging impacts on the working and living conditions of UIUC’s international community.

In light of the continued threat of federal attacks on international, undocumented, and non-citizen students and workers, GEO demands that the university administration take the following actions:

1. We demand that ISSS and the university administration continue their current service standard for frequency of SEVIS status checks for all international students, faculty, staff, and scholars, and communicate the standard publicly. At minimum the standard should be once a day, although we have reason to believe this standard can be increased to an hourly frequency. Whichever the frequency may be, it must be announced to our international student, staff, faculty, and scholar community.

Context: On April 7th, 2025 the ISSS office announced on its website that it “ISSS regularly monitors SEVIS immigration status of students and scholars.” Maintaining and publicly sharing this standard will allow for transparency and consistent communication.

2. We learned from practicing attorneys that universities have the power to reinstate I-20s, therefore we stand firm by certain demands should there be future revocations handed to students without due process.

We demand that the university administration acknowledge that it is within their power to reinstate SEVIS status, contrary to the falsehoods sent out in mass communications with international students, scholars, staff, and faculty. We demand the following steps to be taken to rectify the dissemination of such falsehoods:

First, acknowledge publicly the explicit or implicit instructions received from the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) or Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that prevent issuance of reinstatement I-20s to terminated students.

Second, assert your institutional autonomy by issuing reinstatement I-20s to students who request them, allowing USCIS to adjudicate the validity of terminations openly and transparently.

Third, demand clarity from SEVP and DHS regarding the legal rationale for these terminations, and seek written guarantees that universities will not face retaliatory loss of SEVP certification simply for enabling due process.

Context: The template of emails sent to students with terminated SEVIS statuses/visa revocations stated that there is nothing the university can do to reverse the termination. We have consulted with immigration lawyers who have stated that this is incongruent with the law. There are clear steps pursuant to our immigration system for international students whose SEVIS status has been wrongly terminated. If a student’s SEVIS record is terminated, federal regulations explicitly allow the student’s Designated School Official (DSO)—a university employee certified by the government—to issue a reinstatement I-20, enabling the student to formally challenge the termination before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

3. We demand that all students who receive a notice of SEVIS and/or visa revocation receive a free legal consultation funded by the university from an immigration lawyer specializing in removal/deportation cases.

We will not accept a response that states that the university has policies preventing the funding of legal consultation and support. We ourselves have looked into alternative methods such as drawing funds from the Big 10 Alliance. We demand that the administration continue this research process and present a viable proposal(s).

Context: The Federal Steering Group email sent out to the university on April 10th, 2025 states with regards to students whose status is terminated in the SEVIS system, that,

“…the affected individual is alerted by ISSS and provided resources to navigate any applicable next steps, which will vary depending on individual circumstances”

The emails being sent to students with visa revocations do not offer any specified legal support for students to exercise their right to due process, which our current presidential administration is violating. The legal resources listed are merely publicly available websites such as the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). UIUC is home to 10,384 international undergraduate and graduate students who generate significant resources for the university through tuition payments, fee payments, and their labor.

4. We demand that the university administration establish a set of emergency funds to help meet the legal, academic, housing, living and counseling needs of students who are adversely affected by changes in federal immigration. Please see the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Angel Fund for an example of such a fund and policy or the fund established between Harvard University and its graduate student worker union.

Context: Emails sent to students affected by visa revocations acknowledge students have the option to legally challenge their visa revocation. However, no resources are offered to financially support graduate students through this process, even considering their immediate loss of income.

5. We demand that the university create a pathway for students to continue their studies despite a revocation of visa status and for the university to publicly explain the mechanisms by which students will be allowed to do so.

Context: In the Federal Updates Steering Group email, April 10th, 2025, it was stated: “We are asking colleges/departments/professors to explore potential options that may allow students to continue their programs remotely.” The legality of these options is unclear to faculty, staff, and students. This leaves the ability for students to continue their studies from abroad and without visa status up to the discretion and legal savvy of individual departments. Furthermore, several departments require students to be physically present in their laboratories. Therefore, this announcement does not suffice in serving impacted students.

6. We demand that the university affirm that any J-1 visa holder that faces visa renewal or adjustment of status delays due to the Trump administration’s mass layoff in federally funded offices such as the Fulbright Program be offered methods of continuing their studies remotely, and in line with the GEO contract, that the university make a good faith effort to keep their employment position available. (See page 22, XX. Leaves and Holidays, K. Immigration).

7. We demand that the university administration publicly affirm that it will not facilitate any police detention or criminal charges of students exercising their first amendment right to free speech on campus.

Context: In the Federal Updates Steering Group email from April 10th, 2025, Chancellor Jones and Provost Coleman wrote that “complacency is not a solution.” Therefore, we demand that the university take steps to prevent students from being unlawfully detained in immigration detention, with no due process, in violation of the constitutional right of habeas corpus, as well as their constitutional right to speak to their legal representation, as has happened in a series of high-profile cases such as that of student activist Mahmoud Khalil of Columbia University.

8. We demand that the university administration publicly affirm that it will not share any personal identifying information or data on Chinese nationals working at the university to federal authorities.

Context: We are deeply concerned about our Chinese graduate student population which are under threat of having their private and personal identifying information shared with the federal government in response to the House Select Committee on the CCP’s inquiries.

9. We demand that the informational sheet from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity Equity and Inclusion explaining what should be done if ICE comes to campus, be posted prominently in every classroom, and that this information be widely disseminated, so that all members of the community will know their rights.

Additionally, GEO demands that the university administration address the needs of our graduate workers through the following:

10. We demand that the university administration work toward maintaining the availability of graduate work positions in compliance with GEO’s Immigration Leave policy.

Context: Thus far the university has only communicated that it is working on allowing graduate students faced with visa revocations to continue their studies. See Federal Updates Steering Group email, April 10th, 2025: “We are asking colleges/departments/professors to explore potential options that may allow students to continue their programs remotely.”

How does the university plan to remain pursuant to the section on page 19, under XX. Leave, section K. Immigration, in which the 2022-2026 collective bargaining agreement states, the university must make a good faith effort to keep the same or another tuition-waiver generating appointment available should an assistant lack the proper visa status to be lawfully employed within the United States.

11. We demand that the university administration formally attest that international students who continue university enrollment after a visa revocation will not be liable for the cost of any tuition or fees that would be waived should they have been eligible for a qualifying assistantship.

Likewise, we demand that if due to a visa revocation, a graduate student is not able to meet a requisite threshold of work completion in the semester to be eligible for a tuition and/or fee waiver, the student is not financially liable to any debts in the form of tuition or fees that they may incur.**

In the Federal Updates Steering Group email sent on April 10th, 2025, states that: “The revocation of an international student’s visa status does not automatically impact their enrollment at the university.”

The GEO requires clarity on how this statement impacts graduate student workers whose enrollment includes a waiver of tuition and fee waivers guaranteed by the GEO contract (see page 17, XV. Fee Waivers).

12. We demand that any graduate student worker who continues working in their assigned position for the semester be paid in full for any hours worked, including between the time of their SEVIS and/or visa status revocation and the time in which they were made aware of the revocation.

As the university is aware, revocation of SEVIS and/or visa status is being conducted without direct notice to affected students. The university must comply with labor law and pay graduate workers for any hours worked while unaware of SEVIS and/or visa status revocation.

We call on the university to work with GEO to advance these demands and we call upon our graduate workers and UIUC community at large to sign this petition affirming their support for the swift completion of these actions.