When President Donald Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes on Nov. 2 that ongoing ICE raids “haven’t gone far enough,” it was a statement that landed squarely in the middle of campus life at UTD.
For a university with one of the largest international student populations in the country, Trump’s promise to intensify deportation enforcement is incredibly impactful. In Dallas, ICE maintains one of the state’s most active field offices barely a 25-minute drive from campus. That proximity, combined with Texas’ well-documented cooperation with federal law enforcement, has created intense fear among students who live and study here on temporary visas or under DACA protections, which provide for those who came to the U.S. without documents as children.
For many, “home” now feels like any conditional variable. What gets lost in national coverage is what that fear actually looks like. It’s the student who deletes social media posts about political issues because they are afraid of being misinterpreted at a visa renewal, it’s the freshman who avoids traveling home for winter break because of processing backlogs, it’s the friend group that stops attending rallies because someone warned them about “visibility.” The anxiety of ever-changing immigration policy doesn’t announce itself, but it quietly seeps into our lives. And yet, this time, campus offices are trying to assuage that fear with something tangible.
For many, “home” now feels like any conditional variable.
On Nov. 17, Student Government, in collaboration with the International Student Services Office, will host an Immigration Rights Awareness Event designed to help domestic, international immigrant students cover, understand and navigate these shifting federal policies. The event, which is the first of its kind organized directly through student leadership, was created in response to recent developments such as updates to visa renewal requirements, the proposed $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications and the growing presence of ICE patrols across Texas.
The program will take place in two parts. From 2 to 4 p.m., a tabling session at Chess Plaza will turn the outdoor space into a help hub. Each table focused on a separate theme: university legal resources, ICE detention procedures, recent federal rule changes and general immigration law basics. Here, students can speak one-on-one with immigration professionals about specific concerns that range from visa timelines and Optional Practical Training status for F-1 visas, all the way to what to do if approached by an ICE officer. The goal is not to use this opportunity to platform political debate, but to give students clarity, especially the kind of clarity that can help someone breathe a bit easier.
The goal is not to use this opportunity to platform political debate, but to give students clarity, especially the kind of clarity that can help someone breathe a bit easier.
Later, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Galaxy Room C, a panel discussion will take place, bringing together immigration attorneys and policy experts for a moderated Q&A session. Each speaker will offer a short introduction before taking student-submitted questions. All questions will be screened for neutrality to maintain a nonpartisan tone, and a deliberate decision by Student Government organizers to keep the focus on information and not ideology.
What makes this event different is also the collaboration itself. Rather than leaving international students to rely on online forums, online advisors or overburdened university advising offices, this event gives the ISSO an opportunity for direct discussion. It’s an acknowledgment that the university community, its faculty and its student leadership are making to say we as a collective share the responsibility to protect those most affected by the current immigration situation in the U.S.
Rather than leaving international students to rely on online forums, online advisors or overburdened university advising offices, this event gives the ISSO an opportunity for direct discussion.
The administration’s recent immigration proposals are so much bigger than just simple border control, they target every last one of the bureaucratic systems that feed universities, like F-1 and H-1B visa programs. These are the very things that sustain UTD’s global research reputation. When that system is messed with, it’s not just students who suffer. Research labs lose talent, startups lose engineers and the work force loses vital workers that make all Texas institutions truly international.
That’s why the upcoming Immigration Rights Awareness Event matters, because when fear becomes policy, information always becomes protection. Universities like ours have always been shaped by international mobility. To let UTD’s international spirit dim under the shadow of federal intimidation would be to lose something fundamental about what higher education represents.
To let UTD’s international spirit dim under the shadow of federal intimidation would be to lose something fundamental about what higher education represents.
The takeaway here isn’t to panic, it’s to participate. Attend the event on Nov. 17 and events like it in the future. Ask questions, even the ones that feel uncomfortable. Learn what your rights are under current visa legislation, and how university offices like ISSO can back you if trouble ever comes up. And if you’re not directly affected, show up anyway. Awareness and solidarity are how all intimidation loses its grip. Because when the ISSO sets up spaces for questions, it sends a message that this campus will not mirror the hostility that is present outside its gates. When a president normalizes the idea that ICE raids “haven’t gone far enough,” the only real answer is for communities, universities included, to go far enough in the opposite direction. To make sure every student here knows they belong, that their safety matters and that the forms they fill out will never mean signing away their humanity.