Editorial: Revocation of student visas hurts American universities and our country as a whole

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley chess team last week won its fourth national championship in four years. We congratulate the young chess masters, coaches and the entire university for the achievement.

We can only hope that this latest achievement won’t be its last. And we should all be concerned.

The chess team’s excellence, and international reputation, precedes UTRGV itself, gaining global prominence as part of the UT-Brownsville and Texas Southmost College joint institution.

In the process it has become more than a source of pride for the Valley; it’s also one of the world’s top destinations for young chess players who wish to be part of a renowned program that can help them develop their skills and improve their rankings in the chess community.

As such, the team boasts students from around the world, from Russia, Poland, Colombia, Cuba, Turkey and other countries.

We can only wonder how safe those students will be as the Donald Trump administration advances its “largest mass deportation in history.”

The university confirmed this week that nine students’ visas have been revoked and they are subject to deportation. They are among more than 300 students across the country whose F-1 visas have been canceled, just in the past week.

Trump administration officials say the revocations are part of the president’s efforts to rid the country of “criminal aliens.” Officials at affected universities say the students’ “crimes” in most cases were simply participating in or attending campus protests against the Gaza war. Others were guilty of nothing more than speeding and other traffic violations. One Gainesville, Florida, student is fighting deportation after he was stopped and detained for driving a car with an expired registration sticker.

One University of Chicago professor told the Chicago Tribune that students are easy targets for such operations.

“They’re in the system, and universities maintain records that are easy to access via multiple pathways,” she said. “It’s a win-win for the administration and horrifying for our students, who are terrified.”

Universities including greatly from international students — not just in high-profile programs such as our chess team and track, basketball and other sports teams. Some of the world’s top minds come to our country’s universities to gain an education, and to conduct research, that have fueled our nation’s technological and economic dominance. Most international students stay in this country, where we continue to benefit from their education and contributions.

Student visas have helped give us the knowledge and resources that have given us modern scientific marvels, medical innovation and better products, from nuclear reactors to Tesla automobiles.

All these benefits — and the position we enjoy as one of the world’s dominant nations — are threatened by this administration’s current policies.

Certainly, some people advocate patience — Donald Trump won’t be president forever. However, as each step forward builds on the steps that precede it, we can only wonder how much damage the removal of some of our top minds can wreak on our nation, and our future.

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