Above photo: Nam Y. Huh/AP.
As protests grow and Trump’s approval ratings decline, the administration has been forced to reinstate thousands of student visas.
This is a reminder that Trump and the Far Right have never had a mandate.
In the face of mounting opposition and outrage to his reactionary program, Trump has been forced to reinstate thousands of visas of international students that his administration has tried to revoke. This policy reversal puts important limitations on his administration’s attempts to repress dissent from universities (especially from the Palestine movement), and carry out mass deportations. It is a testament to the power and importance of mass resistance from below, and speaks to the fact that Trump never had a mandate for his reactionary agenda.
Opposition to Trump’s authoritarian policies has been increasing ever since Trump began his second term. From immigrant youth-led protests against ICE to initiatives by rank-and-file teachers to protect their students, there were early signs that the administration would be met with resistance from workers and oppressed communities.
Recently that opposition has grown into weekends where thousands mobilize across the country, outraged by the austerity measures and authoritarian attacks that Trump and his cabinet are trying to carry out, but also by the repression of political dissent and the outrageous detention and deportations of figures like Kilmar Abrego García and Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk. Thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand their release.
It is this resistance in the streets that has forced Trump to backtrack on his attempt to deport thousands of students. While the slew of lawsuits filed against the Trump administration played a role, without mass resistance in the streets, these lawsuits would have had limited impact. Contrary to popular belief, the courts are not above society and politics. Like the constitution, the courts were created by colonizers who built a nation on stolen land and through slave labor. Far from being a neutral institution, the courts are tasked with upholding the constitution and the governing authority of the capitalist class. They provide a “check” on society in an attempt to keep class antagonisms from ripping society apart. In this sense, the courts are more concerned with providing stability than they are justice, which is why they are often the places where injustice is carried out and enforced.
It would be a grave mistake for the movement against Trump and the Left to rely on the courts. Not only are many federal judges Trump appointees, but the Trump administration has shown its willingness to ignore and challenge them. In fact, the same day that the Trump administration announced its reversal of banning student visas, it arrested a judge in Wisconsin who intervened to protect immigrants from being detained.
The administration has been quick to say that its reversal is merely “temporary.” It will continue to take collective action in the streets and in workplaces, organized from below, to keep beating back Trump’s attacks and force Trump to concede to even more demands. Even as the administration reverses its attack on thousands of international students, it is surely looking to craft a new policy to carry out the same attack but with less scrutiny. This was the case in Trump’s first term when the administration backtracked on an extreme Muslim travel ban after protesters flooded airports in opposition, only to later pass a more restrained racist travel ban.
Even now, some of the most high profile international students and university workers who were targeted by this administration continue to languish in ICE detention and the Trump administration continues to set its sights on the movement on university campuses against the genocide. The protests that forced Trump to reinstate thousands of visas must continue and grow to win the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and all Palestine activists detained by ICE, as well as the return of immigrants who have been disappeared or sent to El Salvador’s mega jail.
There is a clear basis to keep advancing our demands. Crises at DOGE, the Pentagon, and other key institutions in Trump’s administration shows that this administration is not as united as it once appeared. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings continue to decline. Even Trump’s immigration policies — the one issue where he maintained positive approval ratings — have started to receive more negative polling.
The reinstatement of student visas is an important win, but it has to be the first of many. It should remind everyone that Trump is not omnipotent. It should moralize us because it shows the collective power of everyone who has been mobilizing and organizing our co-workers and communities against the Far Right.
