Following nationwide legal challenges, the federal government announced it will reverse recent terminations of legal status for international students and halt future actions pending a new policy.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Trump administration has reversed course on the abrupt termination of legal status for numerous international students, after multiple lawsuits were filed across the country challenging the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a government attorney confirmed Friday.
Federal judges had already issued temporary orders restoring student records in SEVIS—the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System—after students and their schools reported sudden and unexplained removals from the system. In many cases, terminations occurred without prior notification to students or their academic institutions.
During a federal court hearing in Oakland, a government lawyer read a statement confirming that ICE had begun manually restoring SEVIS records for students whose legal status was recently revoked. According to attorney Brian Green, who represents one of the plaintiffs in a similar case in Washington, a nearly identical statement was read in that proceeding as well.
Green shared the government’s written statement, which reads in part: “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.”
Green added that government counsel stated the reactivation policy would apply broadly to all affected international students, not just those named in litigation.
The SEVIS database, administered by ICE, is used to track international students’ compliance with U.S. visa requirements. Many of the students impacted by the terminations were informed that the changes were triggered by a match in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), a law enforcement database maintained by the FBI. In some cases, students were told that their visas had been revoked as a result.
The sudden removals came as a shock to both students and school administrators. In many instances, terminations were discovered only through routine database checks or after institutions were alerted by reports of similar cases at other schools.
While ICE has not issued a formal policy document outlining future procedures, officials confirmed that no further action will be taken based solely on NCIC findings until the new framework is released. The reinstatement effort follows increased scrutiny from federal courts and legal pressure from advocacy organizations representing international students.