What Happens to International Students If They Break the Law?
For many students, college is a place of freedom from authority; to let loose and be reckless is a rite of passage. But for some, like international students, they cannot afford to be reckless for fear of the consequences of the state.
More than 2500 students from more than 100 countries come to Kent State every semester to study abroad, learn new skills, explore American culture and earn their degree. But there are many circumstances such as honest recklessness to cultural misunderstandings where some international students may break the law. So what happens to those students when they commit a crime or act in misconduct on or off campus?
Minor/Overlooked Offenses
International students are like any other student on campus except they don’t have pure citizenship in the US and usually only have a temporary visa. International students can make mistakes and disregard authority like other students might. Offenses with the law on or off campus may be overlooked if they are first time or minor offenses, said Desnee Stevens, assistant director of the international student services in the office of global education.
“Well, it depends on if they break the law and the university has taken sanctions against them,” Stevens said.
Things like traffic or speeding violations wouldn’t incite a sanction, Stevens said. However, major crimes such as possession or involvement in illegal substances usually have them convicted and be viewed as having poor conduct by the university.
As a result of this, the officer of Student Conduct would decide if it is against the student conduct as “unbecoming” of Kent state, Stevens said.
Once an international student commits an offense punishable by law or by the code of student conduct, they will then be subject to the penalties and consequences with both the university and in the state of Ohio in a court of law.
Likewise from Kent State’s own Code of Student Conduct, there are times in which international students’ actions aren’t sanctioned, said Todd Kamenash, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Conduct. This may occur if Student Conduct isn’t informed of the case, or isn’t provided with information from a policing agency, Kamenash said, which is true for both domestic and international students.
Student Conduct
“The Code of Student Conduct applies to all Kent State students no matter where they are studying,” Kamenash said over an email interview. “This is not a legal situation, so infractions or legal breaches as determined by the country where study is taking place may or may not result in an accusation of wrongdoing through Kent State.”
When an offense is made on campus publicly, Kamenash said, they would then be made to then handle it very much like a case of domestic student conduct. But they do have the availability through phone and or online resources so students can fully participate in the student conduct process. In addition to the university’s resources, he said international students may also seek advisement from the international program coordinators, as well as contacting the American consulate.
Although international students are not US citizens, there is only one student conduct process for all Kent State students Kamenash said. The procedure, according to the Code of Student Conduct, is issued if :
“Any member of the University community may file an incident report accusing a student or student organization (“respondent”) of violating the Code of Student Conduct. Incident reports may be submitted to the director of student conduct in writing. The director of student conduct will determine if the allegations are within the parameters of University policy regarding the administration of student conduct.”
Off Campus
The code of conduct’s jurisdiction among students, according to the code itself, only applies to “conduct of students and student organizations occurring on university premises, at university-sponsored activities, and to off-campus conduct that adversely affects the university community and/or the pursuit of its objectives in accordance with University policy regarding administration of student conduct.”
When international students are off-campus, they may act out of conduct if they are far away from the main campus and the jurisdiction of the code of student conduct and Kent State University. However, International students do not have immunity from the American justice system or the Ohio State of law. If an international student is charged with an offense of breaking the law, they are under the same process as any domestic student would be off-campus, said Carol Crimi, Managing Attorney for Kent State’s Student Legal Services.
The same laws applied are the same to all other people, Crimi said, so law enforcement and the courts have the responsibility to cite them for the law if they have reason to believe.”
Once they are in court they are subject to the same procedures, constitutional rights and potentially facing the same penalties as anyone else. However, there is a different sensitivity toward International Students, she said. For one, under student fees, Kent State University pays for the Student Legal Services, according to Stevens.
“Its unfortunate, I mean the vast majority of our international students are very respectful of the laws and almost afraid to violate anything. But there are some who don’t make a good reputation for others unfortunately.” Carol Crimi.
Kent State also shows it’s aware of cultural differences by being more sensitive within reason of another person’s culture, Crimi said.
“One area I have researched that in is Chinese Culture. Because we’ve had a number of Chinese students who are charged with fleeing a alluding a police officer,” Crimi said, “Well, come to find out in China, people actually do try to get away from the cops.”
Other sensitivities Kent State considers for international students are making sure the university’s legal services have their lawyers and representatives advise an international or non-citizen student that their conviction has potential immigration consequences. This is accordance tot a recent Supremer Court case: Padilla v. Commonwealth of Kentucky which concluded that according to the sixth amendment that any non-citizen must be specifically notified if their offense is a deportable one. The attorneys for Student Legal Services also look to avoid convictions of deportable offenses to prevent international students from being deported.
“Its unfortunate, I mean the vast majority of our international students are very respectful of the laws and almost afraid to violate anything,” Crimi said. “But there are some who don’t make a good reputation for others unfortunately.”
Deportable offenses are defined as: crimes of moral turpitude. In general, she said, it’s a violent offense or a victim or a sex offense drug offense or theft.
International Students and their sentencing
Depending on the offense, Stevens said, there may be other sanctions given to them for more lenient punishments may include probation for the rest of the semester or academically dismissed. However, in the worst-case-scenario where it is appropriate, they will be sentenced to be disciplinarily dismissed. Once the decision passes through Student Conduct, the student will be passed on to Stevens herself if they are disciplinarily dismissed from the university. When dismissed, they have 10 days until further action is taken.
If 10 days pass and they brought the university nothing, they have to terminate the immigration record which allows them to stay in the US. Once their record is terminated, the former international student has 15 days to vacate the country. After those days, the student will then start to accumulate “unlawful stay in the United States” and a warrant will be issued to apprehend and deport them.
Lassana Kanneh, a sophomore journalism major, has been attended Kent State for three years, but grew up in Liberia for nearly all his life. In Liberia, a northwestern African nation, Kanneh said there are very few laws like the US has, he said, no age limits of alcohol or drug use, or enforced speed limits for vehicles. In a country where Kanneh said many people usually have their awareness to the laws and dangers in society as their own responsibility, he finds it challenging where law and regulations are handled in the exact opposite way.
“So it’s really overwhelming because you have to abide by these things and for me, coming from a culture that policies are not something that people pay much attention to and me being in the United States that policies that you have to know about and you have to be very cautious about it and now break the rules. So I find it somehow overwhelming issue for me.”
However, disciplinary dismissal doesn’t mean that the student will be deported indefinitely, only that they cannot attend Kent State. Without being enrolled in a university, Stevens said, they would be deported anyway, but most are able to find a way around that loophole.
“We tell the student, ‘You have 10 days to either get admitted into another school,’ which sometimes they do,” Stevens said. “And it’s usually a regional community college or something. And sometimes they come back in 24 hours and they’ve got admission to another school and in that short amount of time, we’re able to transfer out an active immigration record to that other school.”
Stevens said it is usually what happens when or if an international student is dismissed, but it is rare in which a large case is sanctioned to international students.
