University of Chicago students' visas reactivated as Trump administration redefines policy
Visas for 10 current and former University of Chicago students have been reactivated, the school confirmed Wednesday.
A UChicago spokesperson confirmed to the school's student newspaper that F-1 statuses had been reactivated for all 10 current students and recent graduates affected by the Trump administration's crackdown on foreign students.
The visas were initially revoked in early April by the federal government, with no reasoning given. Hundreds of students around the country were put in a similar position.
The Trump administration unexpectedly reversed course in revoking student visas on Friday, with the Justice Department announcing more than 4,700 students would have their visas reinstated.
The Trump administration has been sued dozens of times over visa cancelations across the country, and judges have sided almost unanimously with the students.
Monday, the federal government began to reveal its new policy for terminating international students' legal status. In a court filing, government officials shared the new policy, a document issued over the weekend with guidance on a range of reasons students' status can be canceled, including the revocation of the visas they used to enter the U.S.
Brad Banias, an immigration attorney representing a student whose status was terminated, said the new guidelines vastly expand ICE's authority beyond previous policy, which did not count visa revocation as grounds for losing legal status. In the past, if a student had their visa revoked, they could stay in the U.S. to finish their studies — they simply would not be able to reenter if they left the country.
"This just gave them carte blanche to have the State Department revoke a visa and then deport those students even if they've done nothing wrong," Banias said.
Many of the students who had visas revoked or lost their legal status said they had only minor infractions on their record, including traffic violations. Some did not know why they were targeted at all.
According to court filings and testimony from lawyers for the government in a Tuesday hearing, Department of Homeland Security officials said they ran the names of student visa holders through the National Crime Information Center, an FBI-run database that contains reams of information related to crimes. It includes the names of suspects, missing persons and people who have been arrested, even if they have never been charged with a crime or had charges dropped.
In total, about 6,400 students were identified in the database search. One student had been pulled over and charged with reckless driving in 2018 only for the charges to eventually be dropped, which was also recorded in the NCIC.
That student appeared in a spreadsheet with 734 other students' names. That spreadsheet was forwarded to a Homeland Security official, who, within 24 hours of receiving it, replied: "Please terminate all in SEVIS." That's a different database listing foreigners who have legal status as students in the U.S.
Reyes said the short time frame suggested that no one had reviewed the records individually to find out why the students' names came up in NCIC.
Please note: The above video is from a previous report
