When Jean Kashikov graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with degrees in math and professional piloting, he had a plan.
Kashikov, a citizen of Kazakhstan who began studying at UAA on a student visa in 2019, planned to spend one year working in Alaska as a flight instructor — as allowed under his visa program — before leaving the U.S., hopefully with enough flight hours to launch a career as a pilot.
He bought a car, signed a one-year lease in Wasilla and began teaching pilots in Anchorage and the Mat-Su.
But on Thursday, just a few weeks into his one-year work eligibility, Kashikov found out that his visa had been terminated.
Kashikov is one of at least four UAA students or recent graduates who abruptly lost their visas in recent days, according to University of Alaska President Pat Pitney.
Under policies pursued by the Trump administration, hundreds of students and scholars across the country have lost their legal status, putting them at risk of detention and deportation.
In an email sent Monday to university community members, Pitney wrote that one current UAA student and three recent graduates had lost their visas “without prior warning.”
No students at the Fairbanks or Southeast campuses had been impacted as of Monday, she said.
“Our international students and scholars are vital members of our community, and we remain fully committed to supporting their success,” Pitney wrote.
The university system had 378 international students in the 2024 fall semester.
President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian protests, but many of the students — including Kashikov — say they have no history of activism.
Other students in the U.S. have lost their visas due to a history of legal infractions that are sometimes years old.
Kashikov says he was not given a formal reason for the termination of his visa.
He initially thought maybe it was because of a January 2022 incident in Scottsdale, Arizona, in which he faced misdemeanor charges that were dropped several months later.
“If it’s based on this, then they didn’t give me a chance to explain it,” Kashikov said during an interview on the UAA campus on Friday.
“They didn’t give me a chance to talk to an immigration officer or somebody to explain this.”
On Monday evening, he said in an email that it looked instead like authorities were deporting him over a speeding ticket he received in Georgia.
“It’s 88 in a 70, and I (pleaded) not guilty to it because I was going the speed of traffic, as is southern state driving culture to speed 15-20,” he said.
Kashikov found out that his visa had been revoked through an email from UAA international student adviser David Racki on Thursday morning.
Racki wrote that during a routine review of visa statuses, he found — with no advance warning — that Kashikov’s visa had been “terminated” by the U.S. Student and Exchange Visitor Program.
“Since there have been student visa revocations around the country recently that have resulted in very public arrests, I am checking our immigration database on a regular basis,” Racki wrote, according to a copy of the email shared by Kashikov.
Racki asked Kashikov to “please cease any employment immediately” and urged him to contact an immigration attorney.
“An immigration termination or violation has no impact on your academic standing at UAA, though you are potentially subject to arrest and detention by federal authorities.
I urge you to discuss with your attorney your choice to challenge the termination with the Departments of State and Homeland Security, or whether it is better to depart the United States as soon as possible,” Racki wrote.
Kashikov received the news at 11 a.m. on what had — until that time — been “a perfectly normal day,” he said.
Kashikov had breakfast at Denali Family Restaurant in Wasilla and tested a new pair of motorcycle boots.
But after the email, he said he lay in bed for four hours, feeling “really, really depressed.”
“I started calling my friends, calling my customers, telling them that, you know, ‘I’m so terribly sorry, but I have to abandon you all and leave right now,’” he said.
In the long run, the Trump administration’s actions could have a chilling effect on the number of international students and scholars willing to travel to Alaska, according to American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska Director Mara Kimmel.
“The federal administration is taking even the whiff of something that could palpably be considered to be criminal, and then using that to justify (revoking visas),” Kimmel said.
“So I do think it’s going to have a chilling effect on people’s willingness to come to the U.S.”
The ramifications could be particularly challenging in Alaska, she said.
“We’re an Arctic nation.
We have a lot of connectivity with other Arctic nations.
We do a lot of Arctic research.
So if other researchers and students are apprehensive about coming here, I think it will impact that,” Kimmel said.
“If there’s a general fear of people coming here, we stand to lose a lot.”
Kimmel said that challenging the revocation of visas in court is “very advisable,” either on the grounds of free speech or on the grounds that “minor” criminal charges “wouldn’t otherwise support a removal from the U.S.”
However, she said the consequences of a legal challenge and potential detention could be “traumatic” for students.
“There’s no way I’d be saying to my son or daughter right now, ‘Hey, do a study abroad in the U.S.’ where there’s a risk of that,” she said.
Kashikov said Friday that the reason for the revocation of his visa was classified by U.S. officials as “other,” giving him little to go on in deciding whether it was worth fighting to preserve his visa.
“I was fair-and-square certain that I’m in compliance with all the regulations and they have no reason to go after me,” he said.
“If they couldn’t explain the reason to me about why they terminated my record, and I have no clue either, then it just feels like a circus at this point.”
After consulting with an immigration attorney, Kashikov decided to pack up his belongings and leave Alaska as soon as he could, fearing detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Anchorage immigration attorney Nicolas Olano said that immigration authorities can use their discretion, and authorities are applying the law harshly under the Trump administration.
Though the law allows for student visas to be revoked over criminal charges — even without conviction — Olano said he had never before encountered instances of that happening in Alaska.
Kimmel agreed.
“This is not normal behavior that you’re yanked from your visa status quite suddenly and without notice,” she said.
Olano said in some cases, the students can request their visas be reinstated after submitting an explanation of their record to authorities, or go to court to challenge the revocation.
But Kashikov said that he is not certain that a legal challenge is worthwhile in his case.
“I don’t have a goal of finding a back-door way to stay in the U.S. permanently.
I don’t have such an intent,” he said.
“How I see the situation right now is it’s not worth fighting the federal government over a nine-month stay.”
Kashikov decided to study in Alaska after first visiting the state with his parents in 2017.
“I liked the place right away.
I liked the people right away.
And that’s substantially why I decided to go to school here for my degree,” he said.
Kashikov said he would still recommend UAA to other prospective international students — but maybe they should “wait three years.”
Kashikov said he planned to pack his belongings and drive to Canada this week.
He would leave his things in a Whitehorse storage unit before returning to Kazakhstan to stay with family until he made future plans.
He chose to store his belongings in Whitehorse, rather than leaving them in Alaska, out of fear that he would not be allowed back into the country once he leaves, he said.
“Not only do I have to depart, but I suspect that they won’t let me back in even for a short visit to see my friends,” he said.
Immediately following the 2022 incident in Arizona, Kashikov was worried his visa status was in jeopardy.
But after speaking with multiple immigration officials, he said, “every single one of them deemed that it’s fine, because there’s no conviction, and even if there was a conviction, these crimes are not sufficient, from what they understand, because they don’t constitute crimes of moral turpitude, they don’t constitute crimes of endangering others.”
He said the case involving his Georgia speeding ticket is currently awaiting a jury trial.
Now, he says the Trump administration may be counting him in what Trump says in an effort to rid the country of “criminals.”
“I think what they’re going to do a couple months from now, maybe half a year from now, is they’re going to say, ‘We deported so many dangerous criminals,’” said Kashikov.
“I just want people to know that the kind of people he is talking about is me.
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