Trump Administration Reinstates Visas for Foreign Students After Mass Terminations

In a major update for international students, the Trump administration is bringing back visas for hundreds of foreign students whose legal status was suddenly canceled earlier.

Government officials confirmed the news on Friday, bringing relief to students who feared deportation.
This decision comes after more than 100 lawsuits were filed by students who had lost their right to study at U.S. universities.

According to a BBC report, Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Kurlan told a California federal court that immigration officials are now creating a new system for reviewing and cancelling visas for international students.

The policy change follows the impact on around 1,800 students and 280 universities, as reported by Inside Higher Ed. Many of these students had taken part in political protests or had minor criminal charges like traffic violations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had earlier mentioned that visas could be revoked if the administration believed a student’s actions went against U.S. interests.

The sudden visa cancellations caused fear and panic across U.S. campuses. Some students even left the country on their own to avoid being detained or deported.

“Losing their SEVIS records left students vulnerable to immigration actions and possible detention and deportation,” explained Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.

Now, the Justice Department says that student records are being restored in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the platform used to track foreign students’ visa compliance.

However, Kurlan pointed out that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) still has the right to terminate SEVIS records for other reasons.

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“If a student fails to maintain his or her nonimmigrant status after the record is reactivated, or engages in other unlawful activity that would make them removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” Kurlan explained to the court, according to NBC News.

Student lawyers across the country have confirmed that many of their clients’ SEVIS records have been restored in the past few days. However, legal experts believe that the original visa cancellations violated students’ rights and caused major disruptions in their education.

“What I’m hearing is that this is a reprieve for many students who have had their status reinstated in SEVIS,” Mukherjee said. “But this doesn’t mean this ordeal is over for the students who have had their records terminated.”

The Justice Department and ICE have not yet responded to requests for comments. Meanwhile, ongoing lawsuits and new policy changes continue to create uncertainty for foreign students and universities across the United States.

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