By Xavier Martinez

Finals are wrapping up on U.S. campuses, but international students are struggling with a bigger test: Stay put during the summer break or travel home and risk not getting back.

The Trump administration's growing crackdown on foreign students -- threatening schools' ability to enroll them, revoking or withholding visas, and signaling tougher re-entry -- is forcing students to make high-stakes decisions with little information.

"There's sort of a feeling of hopelessness about it," said Andrii Torchylo, a Ukrainian who is set to graduate from Stanford University and begin a doctorate program next year at the California Institute of Technology.

Online message boards of international students teem with inquiries about whether it is safe to travel and how to avoid scrutiny by border officials. Some students suggest posting pro-America messages on social-media sites to increase odds of being accepted back in the country.

Many of those students are turning to immigration attorneys like Sam Shihab for advice. Based in Dublin, Ohio, Shihab has fielded an influx of calls from around the country, including nearby Ohio State University.

"If somebody calls me today and says, 'I'm a foreign student and I'm leaving on vacation,' I'm going to say, 'Are you crazy?'"

Campuses nationwide -- from Baylor University in Texas to Duke University in North Carolina -- are also urging students to stay in the U.S. for the summer. Some are expanding access to summer housing and connecting students with legal experts.

"There's more support than we've seen in years past," said Miriam Feldblum, the executive director of the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a coalition of nearly 600 colleges.

Feldblum, a former dean at Pomona College in Southern California, said traffic to her organization's public online immigration resource portal more than tripled in recent months, reaching over 100,000 visits a month as schools seek help navigating shifting federal rules.

International students often can't work off-campus without authorization, and remaining in the U.S. over the summer can be costly. Some schools are working to bridge that gap.

Arizona State University typically offers on-campus housing to foreign students taking classes or working on-campus jobs. This year, housing is also offered to all international ASU students spending the summer in Arizona, a spokesman said.

Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., has offered free summer housing and meals for its international students -- an initiative the school said was made possible by a $250,000 donation.

As of Friday, more than a third of the school's international students who are returning for the next academic year had decided to remain on campus. "We're going to house as many students who request accommodations," said Macalester spokesman Joe Linstroth.

Many schools' efforts are ad hoc and handled quietly, often through in-person conversations rather than campuswide emails or public announcements. That discretion, Feldblum said, reflects both institutional care and a practical reality: Many colleges want to support students without drawing federal attention.

At Harvard, staff distributed red cards to international students with advice if immigration authorities knock on the door. The cards also list phone numbers for several of the university's emergency resources.

Harvard has frequently connected students with immigration attorneys, students said. It also informally extended the deadline and lifted qualification requirements for applying to summer housing.

Communication of those changes has been unofficial, students said, often disseminated through group chats. "Harvard is very careful what they're communicating," said Karl Molden, who just completed his second year.

Molden, who is from Vienna, originally intended to stay in the U.S. and work an internship in Washington, D.C. But when Harvard came into the crosshairs of the Trump administration, prompting Molden to speak out against the administration, he decided to reverse course. While many of his friends were canceling plans to travel home, Molden booked a ticket home to Europe.

"I feel much more comfortable going home and risking not being able to come back in."

Write to Xavier Martinez at xavier.martinez@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 30, 2025 23:00 ET (03:00 GMT)

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