When I called my parents a few weeks ago to tell them that I had been accepted as an Opinion columnist for The Daily Pennsylvanian, their response wasn’t quite as congratulatory as I’d expected.
“Be careful,” they told me. They didn’t elaborate. They also didn’t need to.
There was no celebration, no excitement, no questions. It was just a solemn nod toward the potential repercussions of choosing to speak my mind in today’s political landscape in the United States.
As an international student, I simply can’t afford to have an opinion. Not just a particular opinion, but any opinion at all. Whether I lean left or right, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican — it’s of minimal significance. Merely existing as a foreigner in the United States at this moment is an inherently vulnerable position. The more you stand out, for any reason, the more vulnerable you become.
This fact is something my American peers often misunderstand. They assume that just because I’m not the type of person to get involved in political advocacy or engage in protest, I have nothing to worry about. But that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.
In reality, any international student who expresses criticism of the Trump administration, whether publicly or in private, runs the risk of being denied entry into the United States. That is not an opinion — it’s a fact, and one that has been made explicitly clear by the administration itself.
But at the opposite end of the spectrum, a student who expresses support for government policies — whether genuine or appeasing — is unlikely to guarantee their safety either. In such a volatile political environment, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with such rapid shifts in the administration’s focus and priorities. In a world where “hostility” can be defined as broadly as any disagreement with government policy, an opinion that is safe today may very well be grounds for deportation tomorrow.
All of a sudden, you’re worried that the satirical TikTok you innocently reposted two years ago poking fun at the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state could be seen as anti-American. Or perhaps that Instagram post you liked last month debunking conspiracies about the causes of autism might now be against national interests. Call it paranoid exaggeration, but under a government that has clearly indicated its intention to decrease the presence of international students on college campuses as much as possible, it sometimes it feels like the entire country is searching for any excuse to get rid of us.
Living abroad isn’t easy. As international students, we already face the daily struggle of adapting to a culture, religious landscape, political spectrum, and lifestyle that are vastly different from those which have shaped us for our entire lives. As we try to find our place within a foreign environment, we hope to feel welcomed and accepted by our new community, not intimidated or shamed into silence.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely agree that hate speech is unacceptable. Coming from a country that also maintains strict immigration procedures, I’m no stranger to the sentiment of caution when it comes to national security. But that doesn’t justify the immense anxiety that has recently become synonymous with the international student experience in the United States.
We don’t just fear saying the wrong thing; we fear saying anything at all. Even more, we fear that anything we do or say could be taken out of context or misinterpreted, with no opportunity to explain ourselves. It’s exhausting, confusing, frightening, and given that I’m a political science student, quite stifling.
At a school where we had to stand out to get in, we shouldn’t live in fear of doing just that. We deserve to be able to learn within a community of diverse political views and peaceful, open debate, not one where our safety and security come with the condition of reticence.
GRETA LYNCH is a College sophomore from Australia studying computer science, cognitive science, and political science. Her email is glynch13@sas.upenn.edu.
