The good news is that the Trump administration has been doing just that. They undid the abrupt termination of student visa enrollments for thousands of non citizen students enrolled in U.S. schools. This decision comes after serious legal challenges. The overwhelming clarity of those harmed students, who suffered expulsion for petty offenses that usually were dropped or otherwise ignorable, worried many.
The terminations also kicked off more than 100 lawsuits in at least 23 states. This new wave of litigation caused significant panic and concern in the international student community. Students were terrified that they had permanently lost their legal immigration status and could be subject to immediate deportation. Judges in more than 50 of these cases answered back to these worries. They instructed the administration to reinstate the terminations on an interim basis, leading to this recent reinstatement.
Late last year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio used his authority to unilaterally cancel the student visas of dozens of young foreigners. He claimed that their pro-Palestinian activism had undermined U.S. foreign policy. This controversial move elicited a firestorm of criticism and subsequent lawsuits. Dozens of other hostile judges looked poised to start leaving similar judgments before the admin’s 180 degree turn on Fri.
A federal official recently assured us that the agency was doing “quality control” on the decisions that ended up resulting in the terminations. In response to one of the litigations, an attorney from the Justice Department indicated that ICE is in fact drafting such a policy. This new policy will provide uniform guidance for closing SEVIS records. Until a new policy is promulgated, the SEVIS records for the plaintiffs in this case will remain in effect. If any records are still inactive, they’ll be reactivated! Further, ICE will not modify these records just because of the new NCIC determination that caused the SEVIS records to be terminated.
Additionally, the attorney clarified that “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.”
This move to re-open the Initial Student visa registration is a welcome reprieve for the 50,000+ anxious would-be students. With their visa status reinstated, they are able to pursue their education without the threat of deportation hanging overhead. The administration’s recent moves point to a growing conflict between immigration enforcement and students’ rights in the age of Trump.
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