At UC Berkeley, a sophomore told CalMatters that she was involved in campus activism for about a year and a half until about March, when she saw international students losing their visas and heard rumors of immigration enforcement agents on campus. Her thoughts on protesting have changed drastically. \u201cEverything I say can be used against me,\u201d she said. She has been coming up with creative ways to be involved while trying to keep herself and other international students safe. For example, she participates in student club meetings, where she feels she can speak more privately.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came to the United States because those are things that I wasn\u2019t comfortable doing in my country,\u201d the sophomore said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t comfortable speaking out. It was like a dictatorship, and that\u2019s why I came to America, which is, like, where the freedom is supposed to be. And then I got met with this. It\u2019s really, really disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also at UC Berkeley, a junior from the UK said that last year she felt much freer. During the campus pro-Palestinian protests last year, she wanted to participate but was too busy. Her regret has now turned into relief because if anyone had taken a picture of her near a protest, she believes she would have suffered consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder a Biden administration, I would have felt like I was free to criticize the administration. I was free to take part in protests,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause of Trump\u2019s recent decision \u2014 especially with the students at Columbia \u2014 I feel like I can\u2019t be anywhere near a protest.\u201d<\/p>\n An international graduate student at another UC \u2014 he does not want to name his campus in fear of not passing his dissertation \u2014 is working on a research project about the interplay of international politics and media. His research paper includes a section on human rights violations and genocide. Initially, he included coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Faculty advised him to remove the parts about Israel from his final project, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt does not have that big an impact on the entire project \u2026 but personally I\u2019m just disappointed that I could not talk about it in my final events,\u201d the graduate student said. \u201cI will be presenting this to a set of faculty from my department, and they will be grading that, determining whether I can graduate or not based on the paper. It impacts a little bit on my department, and regarding freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n In his executive order, Trump promises to protect the civil rights of Jewish citizens, who have faced harassment, physical threats and assault on college campuses.<\/p>\n UC Irvine Jewish student Shir \u2014 who requested not to use her full name because she fears discrimination \u2013 believes if a student on a visa is \u201ccelebrating terror explicitly,\u201d their student status should be evaluated. However, she notes the importance of drawing the line at terror and hate and not overstepping legal boundaries.<\/p>\n \u201cSkipping [due] process doesn\u2019t protect [against] antisemitism, it only creates more hate in the system,\u201d Shir said in an email. \u201cWe are all humans first and should be treated as such.\u201d<\/p>\n While she supports students\u2019 right to protest, Shir wrote \u201cthere have been students repeating and glorifying slogans and ideas used by Hamas, a terrorist organization. This is where action is needed. I and many other Jewish students have been confronted at these protests and on campus, told I am a terrorist, that my family in Israel deserves to die, and had protesters outright justify Hamas\u2019 actions to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Raquel Aldana, a law professor at UC Davis, said the language being used by the Trump administration about antisemitism is extremely broad and could be read to include anything that is anti-Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the areas they\u2019re going to be watching is how these institutions of higher learning respond to allegations of antisemitism, which could end up targeting foreign students,\u201d Aldana said.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s antisemitism task force is investigating allegations of antisemitic incidents at at least 10 college campuses <\/a>across the country, including UCLA, UC Berkeley and the University of Southern California.<\/p>\n Aldana said she didn\u2019t understand what problems the investigations are meant to address \u2014 adding that it \u201cfeels like a political move and not a true concern.\u201d<\/p>\n Three UC campuses that responded to CalMatters said they\u2019ve sent communications to international students to use caution if they plan to travel outside the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/042324_Berkeley-Gaza_MO_CM_10-1024x682.jpg\")
Balancing the support of Jewish students and due process\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/110723_UCLA-Israel-Rally_LJ_CM_02-1024x682.jpg\")
International students limited on travel options<\/strong><\/h2>\n