The Trump administration is walking back visa record terminations for thousands of students across the U.S. after suffering numerous losses in court and admitting last week that officials do not have the authority to terminate students’ immigration statuses by revoking their records.
In court on Friday, the Justice Department said that it is reinstating the records for thousands of international students in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, or SEVIS, records system. On Thursday, students had reported having their SEVIS records restored without any explanation as to why.
Over the past weeks, the administration has changed the immigration statuses of at least 1,800, and likely thousands, of international students, sparking anguish and confusion for students left in limbo by the changes.
At first, it appeared as though the administration was targeting pro-Palestine student activists in its campaign to drastically erode free speech rights, though for many other students, it is unclear why the administration changed their status; immigration officials claimed that they were changing statuses of people with criminal infractions, but many targeted students had no history of charges or had charges dismissed.
The reversal comes after dozens of restraining orders issued by courts and numerous outright losses for the Trump administration, through over 100 lawsuits from students challenging the record terminations saying that they are clearly illegal. It also comes after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) admitted in court last week that it lacks the authority to terminate students’ immigration statuses by terminating their SEVIS records, contradicting what students were told by government or school officials about the revocations.
The administration said that it retains the right to terminate students’ SEVIS records for other reasons like “unlawful activity that would render him or her removable from the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Kurlan said in court. Trump administration officials are working to prosecute and deport numerous pro-Palestine campus activists like Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi over such dubious claims.
Further, Justice Department attorneys said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is working on a policy that would create a “framework” for record terminations, suggesting that the status reinstatements may be temporary until the administration implements the new policy.
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