The U.S. government is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the country, including Minnesota, after many filed court challenges against the Trump administration crackdown, federal officials said Friday.
More than 1,200 students at 187 colleges and universities abruptly lost their legal status or had their visas revoked since late March, often without the students or their schools being notified, according to the Associated Press.
The records in a federal student database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been terminated in recent weeks. Judges across the U.S. had already issued orders temporarily restoring students’ records in dozens of lawsuits challenging the terminations.
Now, students are starting to see those terminations reversed.
Change in status
At the University of Minnesota, four out of 11 students have had their records restored in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security uses to maintain information on international students and their compliance with their visa status.
The U continues to monitor the database and contact international students whose status has changed in order to offer resources, such as student legal services, according to university officials. Not all international students at the U have SEVIS records.
SEVIS tracks and monitors nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors in the U.S., according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Records of their admissions and participation in educational programs and compliance with their visa status are maintained there.
It also allows “for student and exchange visitor status violators to be identified so that appropriate enforcement is taken,” such as denial of admission or benefits or removal from the country.
At the University of St. Thomas, at least one student’s SEVIS record was reactivated Friday, according to officials. That student has been notified by the university, which is monitoring SEVIS daily. St. Thomas officials were previously aware of two students whose SEVIS records were terminated.
‘Emotional burdens’
Five graduate students at Concordia University had their student visas temporarily restored as recently as Tuesday following orders by a federal judge, according to Minnesota Public Radio. The current status of student records and whether other students had seen terminations or reversals could not be confirmed before publication deadline Friday, but the university called the reversal “a path toward resolution.”
“Concordia University, St. Paul is pleased to hear that recent legal and emotional burdens placed on some of our international students and alumni appear to be on a path toward resolution,” said a statement provided by the university Friday. “The university is committed to providing a welcoming environment for people from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. Our highly diverse student population encompasses dozens of ethnicities and religions, and includes many international students.”
Judges around the country had issued orders temporarily restoring some students’ records in the database following lawsuits challenging their terminations.
Monitoring the changes
Universities and colleges are continuing to monitor the changes.
“We are following the news closely and trying to understand what this means for international students, both in the short term and long term,” said Macalester College spokesperson Joe Linstroth. As of Friday, no students at Macalester have had their student status or visa revoked, according to Linstroth.
In response to several cases around the country challenging the terminations, a statement read by a government lawyer confirmed the reversal.
“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,” according to the statement that was obtained by the Associated Press.
Related Articles
19 states sue Trump administration over push to end diversity programs in public schools
ICE is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the US
Minnesota academic leaders among hundreds condemning Trump ‘overreach’
Texas lawmakers approve $1B private school voucher plan
Judges block Trump push to cut funding to public schools over diversity programs
NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, which is maintained by the FBI.
However, Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant Homeland Security secretary, said ICE had not reversed course on any visa revocations but did “restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked.”
Greg Chen, with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said some uncertainty remained: “It is still unclear whether ICE will restore status to everyone it has targeted and whether the State Department will help students whose visas were wrongly revoked.”
This story contains information from the Associated Press.
Imani Cruzen contributed to this report.
Leave a Reply