Trump administration backs down on terminating thousands of student visa records
The Trump administration unexpectedly reversed course on terminating the student visa registrations of thousands of foreign students in the U.S., a government lawyer said in federal court on Friday.
Appearing before the federal district court in Washington, D.C., a Justice Department attorney said more than 4,700 students would have their student visa records reinstated, according to attorney Brian Green, who represents a plaintiff in one of the dozens of lawsuits challenging the registration terminations.
Those students had been affected by a mass termination of records in a government student visa system, known as SEVIS, administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The effort appeared to have targeted foreign students with minor legal infractions, some of which had been dismissed, according to court documents.
The cancellation triggered concerns among students that they could face deportation, as well as a flurry of legal challenges.
The Trump administration was sued dozens of times over the visa cancellations across the country, and judges have almost unanimously sided with the students. Last week, an Atlanta federal judge ordered the government to reinstate 133 student statuses on the SEVIS system that had been terminated this month.
The Trump administration said it would maintain or re-activate the SEVIS records of those affected by terminations, until ICE finalizes a policy that will govern such cancellations in the future, according to a copy of the Justice Department attorney's statement shared by Green. The statement said SEVIS registrations would not be altered "solely based" on the criminal history checks that resulted in the recent record cancellations.
But ICE will retain its authority to revoke the SEVIS registration of any individual who fails to maintain their visa status or who commits crimes that make them deportable under U.S. immigration law.
"ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations. Until such a policy is issued, the SEVIS records for plaintiff(s) in this case (and other similarly situated plaintiffs) will remain Active or shall be re-activated if 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 said in his statement 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," the attorney added.
In a statement Friday, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said 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," she added.
CBS News also reached out to representatives for the Department of State for further clarity on Friday's announcement. While ICE oversees the SEVIS record database, the State Department is responsible for granting — and revoking — the visas that allow foreign students to enter the U.S.
Rather than fight 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.
