Massachusetts universities including UMass Amherst, Northeastern University and Harvard are all reporting that numerous students have seen their visas revoked in recent weeks, joining colleges across the country as the federal government moves to expel foreign students.

Harvard reported three students and two recent graduates, UMass Amherst reported five students, and Northeastern reported “several” students and recent graduates who’ve had their visas revoked. The universities revealed revocations in statements over the weekend.

“Late last week, the Department of State and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initiated a national effort to revoke visas and terminate the legal status of international students who have allegedly engaged in criminal behavior while in the U.S.,” Northeastern wrote in the “Navigating a New Political Landscape” FAQ section of their website. “ICE has also furthered this effort by terminating some student records without formal notification to the university or the student. As of now, we have no evidence that a Northeastern student or recent graduate has had their status revoked due to political advocacy or speech.”

The terminations follow the high-profile ICE arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, a Turkish national PhD student at Tufts, and ensuing legal battle over her detainment in recent weeks. The Department of Homeland Security has stated Ozturk was arrested due to “support of Hamas,” without providing further information.

UMass Amherst said university officials were “not notified by federal authorities of these status revocations and only became aware as a result of proactive checks in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database.”

UMass officials said they will continue monitoring SEVIS for further updates.

Harvard said they too found the students status updates during a “routine records review” and “notified the students of the revocations and referred them to legal assistance.”

“We are not aware of the details of the revocations or the reasons for them, but we understand that comparable numbers of students and scholars in institutions across the country have experienced similar status changes in roughly the same timeframe,” the Harvard International Office wrote.

Also on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders, saying the government has taken “advantage of the United States.”

UMass Amherst said the revocations have been attributed by federal authorities to “alleged incidents, in some cases, as minor as off-campus traffic violations.”

All three universities directed international students effected to legal and information support resources in their statements.

“I want to stress how important our international community is to the vitality of our campus and assure every international student and scholar at UMass of our unwavering support as we confront this new reality,” UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes wrote. “Attracting students from every corner of the globe, higher education in the United States has always been the envy of the world.”

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