Nine Chinese students who were returning to the U.S. as undergraduate students at Arizona State University were detained at Los Angeles International Airport, university officials said.
The students were detained by Customs and Border Protection officials “over the last week,” the university said in a statement Friday. The students were “denied admission to the U.S. to continue their studies” and were sent back to China, ASU said.
“We are working as quickly as possible to coordinate with the federal government to understand the circumstances surrounding these actions and to rectify the situation,” ASU said.
ASU said it has not been able to get answers on why the students were detained and sent back.
Despite returning to China, they’re still enrolled at ASU, working through ASU Online, an ASU official said. The university expects some of the detained students to graduate this semester, the official said.