At the end of every academic year, over 4,500 UC Santa Cruz undergraduates step onto a stage to greet professors, shake their hands and accept the diploma they have worked multiple years for. Some graduates step off the stage with a newfound sense of freedom, ready to join the workforce.
Others step off the stage into uncertainty.
David Olmo Marchal is a third-year international student at UCSC, majoring in biomedical engineering. He left Spain when he was six, first moving to Florida and later to California at the age of 13. Olmo Marchal and his family were drawn to the countless days of sunshine, the large Spanish speaking populations and extensive opportunities for small businesses, including their own, which specializes in connecting doctors to their elderly patients outside of the clinic.
However, due to the Trump administration’s sweeping restrictions on visas of all kinds, international students like Olmo Marchal are left with a shaky foundation under the life they’ve built in the U.S. Simply put: this year’s 400 undergraduate and 576 graduate international students at UCSC are at risk of being pushed out of the U.S.
“I do feel very Spanish, but I also feel like this is my home as well,” Olmo Marchal said. “My friends and family are here. I would like to stay, but sometimes I don’t feel like I have an option.”
Another student grappling with an unclear future is Charlene Wang, a recent UCSC graduate with a degree in business management economics. She grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, and moved to California alone before beginning her freshman year. Wang expressed how her original anxiety surrounding her ability to communicate in English was soon remedied by a sense of belonging on campus.
“[Santa Cruz] was the first place I lived when I came to the U.S,” Wang wrote in an Instagram direct message to City on a Hill Press. “It feels meaningful to me in that way.”
However, after graduating and moving to the Bay Area, Wang has been searching for employment for the past two months to no avail.
“If I’m not able to find a job here, I’ll likely have to go back to Taiwan and look for opportunities there instead,” she said.
Wang’s story is not uncommon. With the Trump administration’s visa restrictions, including a proposed $100,000 fee for the H-1B visa, international students face an already slow job market behind walls of additional requirements.
In the past decade, 41 percent of international students in the United States stayed in the country after graduation, using their student visas — typically an F-1 full time student visa — to fast-track themselves into American citizenship and employment.
Recently, President Donald Trump completely restructured the H-1B visa program, which allows noncitizens with a bachelor’s degree to work in “speciality occupations,” such as engineers or healthcare workers. Historically, visas were granted via lottery system, but entry became weighted as of February 2026, granting higher likelihood to higher earners while deprioritizing recent graduates in lower-wage occupations.
Trump has also made clear his intent to cut Optional Practical Training, a bi-partisan addition to the F-1 visa that allows international students to work in the US for up to a year following graduation.
Other types of non-student visas, such as the E-2 visa program, have also been on the chopping block. Having an E-2 visa is a “nonimmigrant” designation, according to the Trump administration’s Citizenship and Immigration Services website, that allows international investors to live and work in the U.S. if they make a “substantial” investment in a U.S. company. As of Aug. 2025, children of parents with E-2 visas automatically “age out” at the age of 21, and are effectively forced to either apply for a different visa or leave the country.
David Olmo Marchal and his family are under this type of visa. Despite his familiarity with the country, his father’s E-2 status means that legally he is unable to work a job on or around campus. Olmo Marchal opted to attend graduate school to “delay the inevitable decision” he will have to make about starting over back in Europe, or sitting through a lengthy citizenship process.
“Every time I want to work a job, I just go back to Europe,” he said. “It’s crazy. Last summer, I worked at a cardiovascular center in Spain. It was really fun, but I could have gotten the same experience here if I had the option to work.”
Stephanie Silva, UCSC’s director of communications, in collaboration with the International Student Services and Programming (ISSP) office, expressed an increased commitment to supporting international students on campus.
“ISSP advisors have observed increased uncertainty and concern among some international students as they navigate changing immigration policies and visa processes. ISSP continues to provide resources and support to help students navigate these processes,” Silva wrote in an email to City on a Hill Press. “When it comes to employment, ISSP’s function is to educate students on the types of employment permitted within their particular visa status.”
Despite the fervor with which the Trump administration attempts to force international students and the larger immigrant community out of the United States, Charlene Wang expressed both hope and a deep attachment to the place she has called home for over four years.
“Even though I was still trying to step out of my comfort zone and make friends beyond what I was familiar with, having a space where I felt safe and accepted was really comforting,” she said. “It was easy to find a place where I felt like I belonged.”
