How Many Were Affected By SEVIS Terminations and Visa Revocations?

In Chapter 1, we establish the fact that Fordham students were affected by something other than visa revocations. Some were impacted by "SEVIS record terminations." 

SEVIS stands for the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. It's a database created by the Department of Homeland Security as a part of apparatus that oversees international education in the United States.

And in the Spring of 2025, government officials were going into that database and "terminating" student records. 

This is already established fact elsewhere. Our reporting connect the dots at Fordham. 

But what's still unclear is the exact numbers. And I really wanted to get a clear answer on two questions: 

A) How many student SEVIS records were terminated by the Department of Homeland Security in the Spring 2025 semester?

B) How many student visas were revoked by the Department of State in the Spring 2025 semester?

Here’s how I came to my conclusions.

How many student visas were revoked by the Department of State in the Spring 2025 semester?

One of the widely-cited estimations of visa revocations is 1,800. The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration used this number in a Summer 2025 report. USA Today used that number in a story in May. Other, smaller online news sites like thepienews.com and calmatters.org included this figure.

That number comes from an Inside Higher Ed story first published in the beginning of April, 2025.

That outlet used news reports and direct confirmation from American universities to estimate that there were 1,879 students affected as of April 25th, 2025. 

This reporting is helpful as a ball-park figure. But it’s a very fuzzy number. The list seems to mix visa revocations and SEVIS terminations.

For example, in the entry regarding Fordham students, Inside Higher Ed says there were four visa revocations, citing a Bronx Times story which in turn links Fordham’s Updates on Evolving Political Landscape webpage. 

Although four students were affected at Fordham in April 2025, Fordham’s April 9th email, the Bronx Times and Inside Higher Ed all incorrectly describe these actions as “visa revocations.” 

Instead, the April actions at Fordham are more accurately described as “SEVIS terminations.” That’s a fact based on our interviews, and has been confirmed by Fordham.

So, in at least one instance, the Inside Higher Ed number of student visa revocations overestimates by including SEVIS terminations. 

But it’s still a valuable statistic. And it would take a much bigger team, and much more time, to get an absolutely definitive number. 

So we accept that number as an estimation, and maybe even an over-count.

How many student SEVIS records were terminated by DHS in the Spring 2025 semester?

There’s really one big number that is often cited when it comes to the SEVIS terminations: 4,736.

The National Immigration Forum cites that number, linking to a National Association for International Educators blog post.

But this number originates from an open letter, written in the Spring of 2025 by members of congress, addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and then Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem. Noem has since been reassigned to a different governmental post.

Congresswoman Jayapal, who grilled Marco Rubio in a House Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on May 21, spearheaded the open letter initiative. And more than 140 other members of congress signed on.

This letter, which asks for more details about the visa revocations and SEVIS terminations, includes one line that is helpful for our purposes:

DHS confirmed that since January 20, 2025, ICE has terminated the status of 4,736 students.

The letter says this figure comes from some kind of document that is “on file with Committee staff.”

This is maybe the most direct number we can get. For now.

What does this all mean?

It looks like, based on the data available to us, that the SEVIS record terminations were more common than visa revocations in the Spring of 2025. 

Unilateral government-perpetrated SEVIS record terminations were brand new in 2025. At Fordham, they were done without notice or reason. So, for that process to be the one that is more common is really significant. 

It shows how there’s so much more to this story. 

It shows the kind of power the US government is flexing in this new political moment.

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