The Trump administration unexpectedly reversed course on terminating the student visa registrations of thousands of foreign students in the United States, according to a government lawyer testifying in federal court Friday.
A Justice Department attorney appeared before a federal district court in Washington, D.C., and stated that more than 4,700 students’ student visa records would be reinstated, according to attorney Brian Green, who represents a plaintiff in one of the dozens of lawsuits challenging the registration terminations.
Those students were affected by a mass record termination in SEVIS, the government student visa system run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to court documents, the effort appeared to target foreign students for minor legal infractions, some of which were dismissed.
The cancellation raised concerns among students that they could be deported, as well as a slew of legal challenges.
The Trump administration was sued dozens of times over visa cancellations across the country, and judges nearly unanimously sided with the students. Last week, an Atlanta federal judge ordered the government to reinstate 133 student statuses on the SEVIS system, which had been terminated earlier this month.
According to a copy of the Justice Department attorney’s statement shared by Green, the Trump administration has stated that it will maintain or reactivate the SEVIS records of those affected by terminations until ICE finalizes a policy that will govern such cancellations going forward. According to the statement, SEVIS registrations will not be altered “solely based” on the criminal history checks that resulted in the recent record cancellations.
However, ICE will retain the authority to revoke the SEVIS registration of any individual who fails to maintain their visa status or commits crimes that would result in deportation under US immigration law.
“ICE is developing a policy to establish a framework for SEVIS record terminations. Until such a policy is issued, the SEVIS records for the plaintiff(s) in this case (and other similarly situated plaintiffs) will remain active or will be reactivated if they are not currently active, and ICE will not modify the record solely based on the NCIC finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination,” the Justice Department attorney stated in court on Friday.
“ICE maintains the authority to terminate a SEVIS record for other reasons, such as if the plaintiff fails to maintain his or her nonimmigrant status after the record is reactivated or engages in other unlawful activity that would render him or her removable from the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” according to the attorney.
In a statement Friday, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin stated that the administration has “not reversed course on a single visa revocation.”
“What we did is restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked,” the representative said.
CBS News also reached out to Department of State officials for additional information on Friday’s announcement. While ICE manages the SEVIS record database, the State Department is in charge of issuing — and revoking — visas that allow foreign students to enter the United States.
Rather than contest the cancellations in court, some students have self-deported, including one Cornell University student who participated in pro-Palestinian protests on campus and had his visa revoked.