UPDATE, 4/16: On Tuesday night, April 15, 2025, a temporary restraining order was placed on the revocation of the MSU students' visas, pursuant to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU.
(First report)
The debate over the federal government's revocation of international student visas is playing out on the national stage but is also being seen in Montana.
“I worry for them and like, don’t know what that means, so it’s just a very confusing time,” said MSU student Clara Jones.
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On April 10, President Waded Cruzado announced that three Montana State international students had their F-1 visas revoked, which came as a shock to much of the MSU student body.
“I think it’s just really weird that it could happen; I just never expected that a student would be going here and kind of losing that privilege,” said Clara.
Students like Clara and Sarah are concerned for their peers who could be affected by the situation.
“I know a lot of people that are of marginalized communities, and there’s a lot of fear going around right now,” said student Sarah Marburger.
In a statement, Vice President of Communications Tracy Ellig said, “There are roughly 400 international students at MSU from 64 countries with the vast majority of them holding F-1 visas. As of now, they haven’t seen any new status changes to F-1 visas held by MSU International Students, but they haven’t had any formal communication from the federal government regarding the situation, which seems to be the case for most universities in the country.”
The visa revocation may also affect students’ academics.
“Now they cannot focus on their goals, and that’s kind of getting taken away from them without their control,” said Frank Calandrella.
Overall, MSU students I talked to feel very left in the dark over the situation.
“There’s not much you can do because it’s so unknown like what’s happening, why it’s happening—they’re not really giving any explanation,” said Frank.
The ACLU of Montana has filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of two of the three international students who had their visas revoked.
