Matt Blaze“Last month I was just worried about my classes. Now I’m worried that I’ll simply disappear.”
- From email from a talented student whose visa was just summarily cancelled because she’s from the wrong country.
God damn this.
The worst part for me is that I have no words to help or even offer meaningful comfort. I can't imagine how stressful this is, for so many.
DianeIt sucks so much. Frigging white supremacy.
r0k@mattblaze it's clear that the people making these decisions failed kindergarten... can't be bothered to treat others how they'd want to be treated
Kim Scheinberg@mattblaze
I'm so sorry, Matt
What an unbelievably shitty situation for everyone to be in
@kims *I'm* fine, of course. But this is so awful to watch, helplessly.
The one consolation is that my university seems to genuinely have these students' backs.
@mattblaze
Just speaking for me, I try to allow myself grace to acknowledge the helplessness and the moral injury. It feels self-indulgent when others are in much more dire circumstances, but the harm is real
I'm glad your institution shares your integrity
Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱@mattblaze @kims I hope you find a way to help them. If they are taking your classes irl, you might let them take it remotely so they don't have to expose themselves to additional danger.
fritzoids@rjblaskiewicz @mattblaze @kims
I've linked a letter from a Columbia student who ultimately decided to leave for Canada to stay safe. In this letter she details the events and how she also decided to temporarily move to a safer place that neither the university nor ICE knew about, before leaving for Canada.
I think having a place to hide and (like you said) being able to take the classes remotely would be helpful.
Gabriel N@fritzoids @rjblaskiewicz @mattblaze @kims the incredible callousness of everyone involved. Only one person helped the student, everyone else just took advantage of the situation.
I guess Columbia can keep the tuition: “Hey! This was not my fault”
Cassandrich@mattblaze @kims One thing to check and fight for if they don't already have it covered: remote learning & degree paths for any student deported so they can finish the education they were entitled to.
Geeden_Of_Arden@mattblaze I commit to pursuing my own goal of rooting out my personal hypocrisy with as much courage as I can muster, so my judgment will be sharp enough to recognize personal opportunities to comfort the afflicted where they may arise, and to see the most valuable path to take on their behalf. There are opportunities galore. This weakens the monsters. "Organic social cohesion is a stake in the heart of the vampire class". ~Anonymous
Viss@mattblaze sigh. this is all so fucked
Void Turtle@mattblaze There's no hell hot enough for the people responsible.
Claudia 
@mattblaze that is so utterly haunting. I have no words
Nicole ParsonsReminder: billionaire dynasties fund this.
Bradley, Coors, Koch, Scaife, Seid, & Uihlein funded Project 2025
For the low price of $120 million, dynastic wealth ended US constitutional democracy.
Frying the planet...
https://theintercept.com/2022/06/30/supreme-court-epa-climate-charles-koch/
The Saudi royals gave Musk the money he spent getting Trump's corrupt GOP elected.
https://brianiselin67.medium.com/elon-musk-just-sold-twitter-to-himself-and-europe-should-be-paying-attention-c218b37af126
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/01/politics/elon-musk-2024-election-spending-millions/index.html
Bill Zaumen@mattblaze Kicking out students from the "wrong country" is idiotic. Take the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: students from either group are not responsible for the mess - they didn't even have a chance to screw it up. But it they can talk to each other so each understands what the other side has been going through, there's more of a chance of them finding a solution than if each demonizes the other. And a solution would save the U.S. a lot of money spent for "military assistance".
cwicseolfor (has moved!)@bzdev @mattblaze That would be assuming actual will to better the country and an absence of maliciously performative racism. There’s no shortage of good data to ground beneficial policy in this area, or wasn’t - Musk’s little incel hacker clique exists to find and purge that data so that no one may ever use it again.
The goal is to destroy lives. Past a certain point of rich, money can’t buy more power. But immiserating others increases your relative standing.
Rixt Houben@mattblaze lets revoke all visa american people now have all over the world...
Sure they might not voted or support the dude...but they are from the wrong country...
Phil@mattblaze Infuriating. I think it's high time governments do their job and start putting real pressure on the US to get their citizens out safely.
And while I understand that a lot of them may need to return to bad places they wanted to escape from, I have little doubt that it's better than disappearing off the surface of the Earth.
I read this yesterday, and I wish nobody ever has to experience anything even close to this.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/05/i-was-a-british-tourist-trying-to-leave-america-then-i-was-detained-shackled-and-sent-to-an-immigration-detention-centre
It's no different from a kidnapping. The USA often played this card, where 'our citizens must not be harmed.'
Isn't it high time for the rest of the world to apply that exact same principle?
I'd argue it is the duty of every person to protect other people (i.e. homo sapiens, without any qualifiers) from harm. Canceling legitimate visas without any justification or reason isn't okay.
Kidnapping people isn't okay.
Tearing families apart isn't okay.
I have yet to hear about any country really putting the screws on the US about this. Why?
And while I understand that a lot of them may need to return to bad places they wanted to escape from, I have little doubt that it's better than disappearing off the surface of the Earth.
I read this yesterday, and I wish nobody ever has to experience anything even close to this.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/05/i-was-a-british-tourist-trying-to-leave-america-then-i-was-detained-shackled-and-sent-to-an-immigration-detention-centre
It's no different from a kidnapping. The USA often played this card, where 'our citizens must not be harmed.'
Isn't it high time for the rest of the world to apply that exact same principle?
I'd argue it is the duty of every person to protect other people (i.e. homo sapiens, without any qualifiers) from harm. Canceling legitimate visas without any justification or reason isn't okay.
Kidnapping people isn't okay.
Tearing families apart isn't okay.
I have yet to hear about any country really putting the screws on the US about this. Why?
‘I was a British tourist trying to leave the US. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre’
Graphic artist Rebecca Burke was on the trip of a lifetime. But as she tried to leave the US she was stopped, interrogated and branded an illegal alien by ICE. Now back home, she tells others thinking of going to Trump’s America: don’t do it
Kat O’Brien@mattblaze how heartbreaking and awful.
Doubledado@mattblaze I work for the Global Promotion Center of a Japanese national university. I have stressing that we should be monitoring our students in the US and planning for some horror show. No institution should be sending students to study in the US at this point.
Damiano Gacík@mattblaze Damn, that’s seriously heartbreaking. How is this even happening in 2025? The system’s totally failing people who just want to study and live their lives
Kevin Karhan 
@mattblaze help said studebt cross the border ASAP!