Getting a criminal conviction. Working in the U.S. without permission. Failing to maintain a full course load. 

Receiving a traffic ticket three years ago. Participating in a protest two years ago. Writing an op-ed in the student newspaper last year. 

The first list are the kind of things that used to put international students’ visas at risk. The second are just some of the reasons more than 300 students in the last week or so have suddenly had their visas revoked and been detained or forced to consider fleeing the country. 

There is a clear and alarming difference between these offenses. With the exception of traffic violations, or those students who have had their visas revoked for no discernable reason at all, this recent wave of student visa revocations has honed in on student speech, and more specifically, any speech at odds with the Trump administration.

As a student-run newspaper, we tend to throw around the words “First Amendment” quite a bit. While, as a private entity, Trinity is not beholden to the First Amendment in the same way that public universities are, we are lucky enough to go to a university that has so far acted as though it were and signaled every intention to honor freedom of speech, press and expression in its student body. We wouldn’t be able to function as an independent publication, nor include as many perspectives, debates and opinions in our pages, if Trinity did not believe so firmly in this right. 

This protection has allowed Trinity students to freely share their thoughts with us year after year. We’ve been honored to print guest columns, staff opinion pieces and news articles about controversial topics, including opinions that have resulted in the deportation of students at other universities. We would love to keep doing so, but the truth is, we are scared. 

Alarmingly to us, the Trump administration has been justifying detentions and deportations by citing case law and a statue from 1952. The line they are citing most often, section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, reads “an alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.”

The language here is broad, and so far, the Trump administration has argued that an op-ed in Tufts University’s student newspaper that called for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel has qualified. I find it hard to believe that one student co-writing an op-ed in a student newspaper at a university of around 13,000 students has the potential to create “serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” but the fact that the author is still being detained shows just how far the administration is willing to go to combat student speech. 

So far Trinity, like many other colleges and universities in Texas, has been spared in this crusade. In looking at a map of revoked international student visas, it appears that the Trump administration is too busy hunting down every potentially dissenting international student in California and Massachusetts to turn their attention toward Texas. That doesn’t mean, however, that it can’t happen here. We need to be prepared. 

Following the advice of several national student media organizations, we are choosing to make some exceptions to our anonymous source and takedown policies. Approximately 10% of Trinity students are international, and we are not willing to endanger their safety and ability to remain at Trinity by strictly adhering to our usual procedures. These are exceptional times, and they call for some exceptions to be made. 

If you are an international student and worried that a photo of you or something you said or wrote in the paper could be used against you, reach out to us and we will find a solution that protects your identity, whether that be by removing your name from the article, replacing it with a pseudonym or something else. We value your speech and we value your ability to remain at Trinity. We are willing to fight to find ways to make both possible. 

Make no mistake, free speech and free press is here to stay. We just refuse to allow it to be weaponized against members of our community.