Tulsa-area exchange students, hosts worry over Trump admin visa cancellations
Erika and Jimmy Penuel have hosted high school exchange students since 2016 and are now local coordinators for Greenheart Exchange.
By Samson Tamijani
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TULSA, Oklahoma (KJRH) — Two local coordinators for a foreign exchange student program told 2 News there’s growing concern for students over recent arrests and visa revocations around the country.
Dove Science Academy currently has eight international students who are part of the Greenheart Exchange program. Booker T. Washington High School has one other.
Erika and Jimmy Penuel have hosted high school exchange students since 2016 and are now local coordinators for Greenheart Exchange. They now say fear of arrest or visa confiscation for high school students is a genuine concern because of the unprecedented immigration crackdowns imposed by the Trump administration.
Last week more than a dozen international students from several Oklahoma universities saw their international student visas suddenly revoked.
Since then, no specifics have been released of the students’ identities or countries of origin.
Oral Roberts University told 2 News on April 17 it is “providing them support as needed.”
Sen. James Lankford told KFOR on April 13 even he has questions about last week’s actions.
“There’s a student that we can’t find any discipline problem that was an issue there,” Sen. Lankford said. “So we’re just asking the state department to say, ‘Hey, help us understand this particular visa.'”
Before this semester, the Penuels said the experience of hosting exchange students has been a thrill for teens and host families alike.
“To be able to share Christmas and Thanksgiving and all of our traditions. Everybody does something different. So that’s been a great experience,” Erika Penuel said.
What’s not great, the couple told 2 News, is the effect of the recent visa cancellations and arrests of foreign nationals with otherwise legal paperwork to study in the United States.
“The kids do worry about that,” Erika Penuel said. “We’ve instructed all our students to carry a copy of their passport with their visa…It’s a little closer to home when it’s OU and ORU, you know?”
The Penuels said that even high school students across the world may have second thoughts about coming to the Sooner state for their studies now. The couple added that recent conversations with them have not been easy. “They wanna know, ‘What’s gonna happen?’ ‘What do I do if..?’ And a lot of that stuff I can’t answer,” Erika Penuel said. “Because I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know why they’re rounding up people that are legally allowed to be here. I don’t know.”
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