A UCLA international graduate student has been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border and is being held by Customs and Border Protection, the school confirmed late Thursday.
The student, whose name was not released, was taken into custody Wednesday night, according to faculty members and students who quickly organized a campus rally in her support Thursday evening.
“UCLA has learned that an international graduate student was detained by United States Customs and Border Protection while attempting to enter the United States from Mexico,” Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement to The Times.
“The student remains in the custody of CBP and we are actively working to learn more information. Our international students are an essential part of our Bruin community, and we remain fully committed to supporting their ability to learn and thrive at UCLA.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the CBP, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Few details were released about the student, including her name and nationality. Faculty, and an immigration attorney who has been attempting to contact the student, said late Thursday they had not yet spoken to her. They added that the student was detained at the San Ysidro border crossing south of San Diego and was able to reach a UCLA contact before she was taken into custody.
It is unclear why the student was in Mexico or what led to her detention.
Since late March, the Trump administration has suddenly canceled more than 1,000 visas of foreign students in the U.S., including more than 120 in California and roughly 20 at UCLA. On April 4, UC San Diego said an international student there was also detained at the U.S.-Mexico border while attempting to cross. In a campus message, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said the student was “detained at the border, denied entry and deported to their home country.”
At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security, which maintains a database that affirms the enrollment of foreign students at universities, has terminated the status of the same students. College staff have learned of the actions after checking the database.
Visas grant international students entry to the U.S., while their status in the SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) database is part of what gives them legal permission to stay in the U.S. for studies or limited on-the-job training after graduation.
The administration has not given detailed reasons for the visa or student enrollment status cancellations.
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who faced unrelated criminal charges.
Attorneys for several students said they were told the visa and SEVIS cancellations were due to criminal records checks, but their lawyers have said that some students’ alleged violations included minimal infractions such as speeding tickets. Immigration experts said that such actions did not meet the level at which visas or student status would be lost under past administrations, including during President Trump’s first term.
More aggressive immigration enforcement actions took place last month, mainly at Ivy League and elite campuses in the Northeast, including Columbia University, where foreign students who supported pro-Palestinian protests were arrested for deportation. Some of those students were of Arab, Muslim or South Asian backgrounds. In statements and legal filings, the Trump administration has claimed the students were supporters of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and a threat to U.S. foreign policy goals.
In the case of the detained UCLA student, it is not known if she was involved in pro-Palestinian activism or if her visa had been canceled.
About 150 community members rallied Thursday at UCLA in front of Murphy Hall, which houses the chancellor’s office. They held signs reading “Hands off our students” as well as pro-Palestinian posters. “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA,” students chanted.
“We’ve been warning the university for weeks that students would be detained,” said Graeme Blair, an associate professor of political science who spoke at the rally. “We’d like UCLA to stand up for their students.”
Ariela Gross, a UCLA law and history professor, also addressed the crowd. “We have a moral obligation … the UC has a moral obligation” to defend students, she said.
