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.

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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. 

The mother of an 8-month-old boy who died of a fentanyl overdose in a Roseville hotel room has admitted she is responsible for his death and will be put on probation as part of a plea deal with the prosecution, according to court records.

Wynona Ann Littlewolf, 30, of Bemidji, Minn., pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court last week to second-degree manslaughter in connection with the March 2022 death of Ashton Michael Littlewolf at the DoubleTree by Hilton on Cleveland Avenue.

Wynona Ann Littlewolf (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Corrections)

The plea deal calls for Littlewolf to receive at sentencing a downward departure to probation for up to five years and no additional time to serve. She’s scheduled to be sentenced June 6.

According to the criminal complaint, St. Paul police were sent to a business in the city’s St. Anthony Park neighborhood around 2:45 p.m. March 12, 2022, on a report of a baby who was blue, unconscious and not breathing. Medics responded and pronounced the infant dead, noting he was already in rigor mortis and his body seemed abnormally cold.

Littlewolf and her boyfriend told officers they had stayed overnight at the DoubleTree and found Ashton was purple when they awoke in the afternoon. They left for a hospital, but stopped at the St. Paul business for help after getting lost.

Officers recovered drug paraphernalia from the hotel room: a burnt piece of tinfoil in the bathroom and a rolled-up dollar bill on the floor.

An autopsy on her son concluded he died of fentanyl toxicity.

Littlewolf agreed to speak to investigators from the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee on March 30, 2023, when she was serving time for two Cass County cases. She said her son was starting to eat solid foods and had just started crawling and standing up. She said he crawled on the hotel floor during their stay.

Littlewolf said she and her boyfriend had argued after dinner and so she went into the bathroom to calm down and smoke heroin. When she left the bathroom, she found her boyfriend and Ashton asleep on a bed. She moved the infant to his crib.

When asked if she was responsible for her son’s death, Littlewolf replied, “I think I should have been watching him more,” the complaint states. “Okay, I should have been, you know, I should have been watching him a lot more, but I pushed him off to [her boyfriend].”

Charged while incarcerated

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Littlewolf just over two years after Ashton’s death while she was still incarcerated at the Shakopee prison for second-degree burglary and possession of a fifth-degree controlled substance. Both cases occurred on Sept. 21, 2022, six months after the infant’s death.

Dennis Gerhardstein, Ramsey County Attorney’s Office spokesman, said Friday the delay in charging Littlewolf in Ashton’s death had to do with an ongoing law enforcement investigation and because in January 2023 she requested execution of her Cass County cases. She received a sentence of two years and four months in prison, with 45 days of credit for time already served in custody.

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The investigation into Ashton’s death hinged on results of an analysis by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension of the drug paraphernalia found in the Roseville hotel room — the tinfoil and dollar bill — as well as a subsequent blood sample from Littlewolf. Both the items and her blood tested positive for the presence of fentanyl, the complaint says.

Littlewolf was released from the Shakopee prison and into supervised probation on July 1. She was discharged from probation April 9.

As far as the plea deal calling for probation in the infant’s death, Gerhardstein said the attorney’s office reviews the facts on a case-by-case basis before recommending a solution. He noted that Littlewolf had taken advantage of sobriety counseling and other prison services.

“Knowing she was progressing well and that her time inside would count as time served in any conviction, the (attorney’s office) felt it would be better to pursue an outcome of extended supervised probation rather than a few additional months in prison,” he said.

Maybe it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock that the Wild have dismantled the Vegas Golden Knights over the past couple of games while turning a 1-0 series deficit into a 2-1 series lead.

Not when the Wild have winger Kirill Kaprizov, who has been the best player on either team, dominating pretty much every time he hops over the boards.

Frankly, the only other player that has rivaled Kaprizov’s impact to this point is winger Matt Boldy, which makes sense considering they are both flanking center Joel Eriksson Ek on the top line.

The best news for the Wild heading into a matchup with the Golden Knights on Saturday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center? It seems as if Kaprizov is only getting stronger.

Whether it was the pair of assists in Game 1, the pair of goals in Game 2, the pair of goals in Game 3 or any of the other little plays in between, Kaprizov has risen to the occasion when the Wild have needed him most.

Not that anybody should be surprised by this level of production.

It wasn’t too long ago that Kaprizov was viewed as a frontrunner for the Hart Trophy after scoring 50 points (23 goals, 27 assists) through the opening 34 games. His outstanding play in the early stages of this season had the Wild looking very much like a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

Everything changed when Kaprizov suffered a lower body injury right around Christmas that eventually required surgery and forced him to miss 40 games in total. Not only did that significantly alter the trajectory of this season for Kaprizov, it forced the Wild to scratch and claw their way to simply get into the playoffs.

Fortunately for the Wild, Kaprizov was cleared to return to the lineup about a week and a half before the playoffs started, which allowed him to log a few games to get his legs back underneath him.

Though there was never truly any concern about Kaprizov’s conditioning when he stepped back on the ice, head coach John Hynes acknowledged the importance of getting him some puck touches before the playoffs.

“There was no doubt in my mind that he was going to come back physically fit and ready to go,” Hynes said. “There is a difference of getting back into the flow and the structure of how we want to play so that it becomes automatic.”

After knocking off some of the rust that built up during his absence, Kaprizov is shining once again, and his reemergence has made the Wild dangerous. It’s not so much that he’s stuffing the stat sheet; he’s also playing with the attention to detail “that’s required to win,” Hynes said.

“If there’s a play to be made, he’s making it,” the coach added. “There’s nothing forced. That (top) line has been tenacious.”

It goes beyond the intangibles, however, when talking about Kaprizov’s game. There is something magical about him when he’s at the peak of his powers. It feels like something special could happen anytime the puck is on his stick.

There have already been some examples of that in the playoffs.

How about the incredible saucer pass that Kaprizov delivered to Boldy in Game 2? How about the near 200-foot empty-net goal from Kaprizov that slammed the door shut? How about the buzzer-beater from Kaprizov at a pivotal moment in Game 3?

This isn’t some random player catching lightning in a bottle; this is a superstar taking the next step in his career.

Never mind that so much time away from the game ultimately cost Kaprizov a chance at winning the Hart Trophy. He still has a pretty good shot at the Conn Smythe Trophy if the Wild can go on a run. That Hart Trophy can wait.

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For most of the past two seasons, the Twins have employed a fairly even split of playing time behind the plate. Ryan Jeffers would start one day, Christian Vázquez the next.

Last year, each started 81 games with Jeffers playing 720 1/3 innings and Vázquez 719. That’s how things stood when the Twins started this season, too. But over the past week, that’s finally changed.

Vázquez took a foul tip to his hand on April 14 and he’s healthy now, but the playing time has flipped dramatically towards Jeffers. Vázquez has started just twice since then with Jeffers drawing seven starts behind the plate in that time period, including Friday night’s game. At one point in that stretch, Jeffers started six of seven games.

“I think RJ is going to find a few more at-bats in the near term here,” manager Rocco Baldelli said earlier in the week. “We can see if we can get the offense going even more than we’ve seen. That’s a big part of it. … I think getting him a few more games and getting him a few more at-bats might be able to jump-start our group in some ways offensively.”

Jeffers said he spoke with Baldelli about the change and the manager indicated there wouldn’t be an exact schedule but just that the 27-year-old backstop would be in the lineup more often.

Vázquez is the stronger defender of the two, while Jeffers is a better hitter. Heading into Friday’s game, Jeffers was hitting .254 with a .682 OPS and 98 OPS+ while Vázquez was hitting just .152 with a 33 OPS+, which is figure that is well below the league average hitter (100).

“I’ve gotten a good handle on how to prepare myself going every other day,” Jeffers said. “I think that was hard at first, but I think, especially when you’re trying to feel something or figure something out, it’s nice when you can get a larger sample size of games quicker.”

And while the reason the two have shared the playing time is in large part because of the rigors of the position, Jeffers said he thinks his body will be able to bounce back even with an uptick in playing time.

“I’ve always said, my whole time here, I would love to play every day,” Jeffers said. “It’s the reality of catching, you don’t do that. But I’m excited. The opportunity is exciting. I’ve always prepared my body to be ready whenever that happens.”

Lewis plan

Royce Lewis headed out to St. Paul on a rehab assignment on Friday, a major step for him as he works his way back from a hamstring strain that has kept him sidelined since mid-March.

But don’t expect this rehab assignment to be a quick one.

After a partial game on Friday, Lewis is scheduled to have Saturday as a day off. He’s supposed to play on Sunday and then the Saints have a day off on Monday. The Twins will head out on the road next week and it’s possible they will wait until they return home on May 6 to activate him from the injured list.

“He’s going to have to build back up,” Baldelli said. “In a lot of ways, he’s starting from scratch with his game action. It’s been awhile since he’s played, so he’s going to need some at-bats, he’s going to have to be at third base a fair amount. He’s going to be DHing some.”

Briefly

Simeon Woods Richardson is scheduled to start on Saturday opposed by Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi. Woods Richardson gave up three runs in 4 1/3 innings pitched the last time out. …  Minor league catcher Diego Cartaya cleared outright waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A. The Twins’ 40-man roster is now at 39.

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