On Friday afternoon, approximately 35 Rhode Island School of Design students rallied outside 20 Washington Place — a RISD administrative building known as Prov-Wash — in response to the revocation of one international RISD student’s visa.
Last Monday, RISD President Crystal Williams sent a campus-wide email informing the community of the visa revocation. Williams did not disclose the name of the student and said the school had “not been told the reason for the terminated status.”
“This revocation comes as a threat to our international, undocumented, refugee and immigrant students,” said a RISD Students for Justice in Palestine spokesperson, who was granted anonymity due to safety concerns, at the rally. International students make up 33% of RISD undergraduates enrolled this academic year, according to the college’s website.
Through visa cancellations and deportations, the Trump administration “actively builds an environment where the state can kidnap, disappear and deport our community members with no accountability,” they added. “These disappearances are political.”
The RSJP spokesperson pointed to the detainment of Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident who was involved in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia. Khalil was taken to a detention center in Louisiana, away from his pregnant wife who is a U.S. citizen. On Friday, an immigration judge ruled that he could be deported.
“We cannot isolate from each other and the issue at hand,” the RSJP spokesperson said to the rallying students. “This is happening on our campus, right here, right now.”
“When (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) comes onto our campus, we need to stand together and resist Trump's fascist rhetoric,” the spokesperson added. “We demand the RISD administration ban ICE from campus. We demand the RISD administration refuse to comply with Trump's MAGA rhetoric.”
A member of RSJP also read a letter on behalf of an international student addressed to Williams. The international student wished to be anonymous and was not identified at the rally.
“Dear Crystal, I’m so glad you’re finally seeking to be a community of care because as an international student, I didn’t know we meant something to you besides stacks of cash exploit,” the student wrote.
“You and this board of trustees that chose you have a moral backbone of a leaf in the wind,” they added. “We are here today to do the work of building the community you speak of because you have failed us.”
A RISD spokesperson pointed to recent community announcements and guidance page in response to a request for comment.
Before Friday’s rally, Williams sent a campus-wide email affirming students' right to protest but cautioned against pressuring others to do so.
Some international students expressed “pressure from their peers to participate in activities that might heighten their vulnerability,” she wrote. “Gathering and protesting peacefully is everyone’s right. Pressuring others to do so — in any way — is unacceptable.”
“We did not explicitly call out international students to show up to our rally,” the RSJP spokesperson said. Instead RSJP “encouraged the broader RISD and Providence community to fight back” against the Trump administration targeting the international and undocumented community.
In her Monday email, Williams acknowledged the similar wave of visa revocations happening at higher education institutions across the country.
Last Thursday, at least one Brown student and a “small number” of recent graduates had their visas revoked, according to the University’s Office of International Student and Scholar Services.
Similar to RISD, the University did not receive notification from federal agencies about the revocations and had “no official information to provide” regarding the reasons behind the visa cancellations.
International students at Columbia, Harvard and Stanford University have also had their visas revoked. On March 27, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department had revoked about 300 student visas.
RSJP is currently demanding a meeting with Williams and other RISD administrators to discuss an appeal process to the January rejection of a student-led divestment proposal by the RISD Board of Trustees, according to the spokesperson. The proposal concerned the school’s relationship with companies affiliated with Israel.
According to the RSJP spokesperson, RISD’s administration has not responded to their demands yet.
“If RISD refuses to keep us safe,” said the RSJP spokesperson at the rally, “we will keep us safe.”
Sanai Rashid lives in Long Island, New York. As an English and Economics concentrator, she is passionate about storytelling and how numbers and data create narratives in ways words alone cannot. When she is not writing, you can find her trying new pizza places in Providence or buying another whale stuffed animal.
