Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that visas for South Sudanese individuals in the United States have been revoked.
Credit: Sanjana JuvvadiPenn International Student and Scholar Services is monitoring impacts of a new federal policy terminating the visas of all South Sudanese passport holders, according to a Friday message.
The April 11 announcement from ISSS came five days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. State Department would immediately revoke visas issued to all South Sudanese passport holders. According to the update — which was posted to ISSS' Immigration Policy Updates and Resources page — the University is "closely monitoring recent policy changes … to assess the potential impacts on Penn’s international student and scholar community."
“Penn values its international community and is committed to their safety, well-being and success,” the announcement read. “We recognize that rapid changes in immigration policy can be unsettling and are committed to supporting our community as the situation evolves.”
A University spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests for comment. ISSS declined a request for comment.
In a press release announcing the policy, Rubio claimed that the decision was designed to prevent the South Sudanese government from “taking advantage of the United States.”
“Enforcing our nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States,” the release read. “Every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the United States, seeks to remove them.”
The policy is the latest in a series of attacks on international students — and higher education institutions more broadly — from 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump's second administration.
At the time of publication, over 1,000 international students and scholars at over 180 colleges and universities across the country have had their visas revoked.
On April 7, ISSS announced that “at least three” international Penn students had their visas revoked. A University spokesperson told The Daily Pennsylvanian three days later that Penn is monitoring students’ visa statuses twice a day through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System — an online system managed by the Department of Homeland Security that tracks the records of international students studying in the United States.
In an April 8 email, Graduate School of Education Dean Katherine Strunk identified one of the three Penn students who had their visas revoked earlier this week as an international GSE student. Strunk wrote in the email that the school was “working closely alongside colleagues across the University to ensure they have access to all available support and resources.”
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