UT students protest mass deportations, call for university to protect immigrant students

AUSTIN, Texas - UT Austin students are standing with international students amid a crackdown on immigration from the federal government. 

A couple dozen students rallied against ICE and mass deportations and to demand protections from the university for immigrant students.

What they're saying:

"I have the privilege to be here studying, to be the first in my whole family's lineage to be able to graduate from a U.S. university... I could be the voice representing so many voices who unfortunately have all the reasons to be scared or to not want to speak up or fight," student Laysha Renee Gonzalez said.

"We have a very large international student community based here at UT. They, like many other students, are rightly frightened and fearful about what may happen if more of this sort of action comes forth," Arshia Papari with Students for a Democratic Society said. 

The group recently delivered a letter to UT administration asking for a meeting about immigrant protections but never got a response, so they decided to hold a protest.

"It's been extremely concerning to me the rise of deportations and all these sorts of things, and I just think that in a university space when we are spending so much money to be here and when we've worked so hard to be here, we ought to feel safe," student Ava Hosseini said. "I'm lucky I'm a citizen. But ultimately, there are a lot of people who aren't. I think that because of my position as a naturalized citizen, I want to be here to make sure that I'm defending the people who can't be here, because they're afraid of getting literally deported."

Big picture view:

This comes as some international students at universities across the country have had their visas revoked, as part of a crackdown on immigration from the Trump administration.  

The administration has said they would deport people who commit crimes. 

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In cases across the country, some students have been targeted for being involved in pro-Palestinian protests, others because of traffic violations. 

At Texas A&M, multiple students had their visas revoked, according to the Associated Press.

The other side:

FOX 7 Austin asked UT Austin how many students have had their visas revoked, what the reasoning was, what support there is for international students, and the university's response to the protest and request for a meeting. 

The university only responded by saying: "The University can confirm that the visa status of multiple international students has unexpectedly changed in recent days." 

They did not release any other details.