 "Students walk at the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 15, 2025. Image- Reuters")
The Trump administration is reinstating the legal status of international students whose records were recently terminated, a Justice Department lawyer said during a court hearing on Friday.
Speaking in federal court in Oakland, California, government attorney Elizabeth D. Kurlan announced that student records would be reactivated while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) works on a revised policy to guide future terminations.
The decision marks a shift from recent weeks, during which US authorities revoked the visas and status records of hundreds of international students, many of whom had been involved in political activism or faced past charges such as DUIs.
Those students’ status had been revoked as a result of their records being terminated from a database of the approximately 1.1 million foreign student visa holders, putting them at risk of deportation.
Since Trump took office on January 20, records for more than 4,700 students have been removed from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-maintained database known as Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The database monitors compliance with visa terms and records foreign students’ addresses, progress toward graduation and other information. To remain in the database, student visa holders have to obey conditions like limits on employment and avoiding illegal activity.
Shortly before Friday’s hearing in Boston University student Carrie Zheng’s case, US District Judge F. Deniss Saylor said he had received an email from a lawyer from the government alerting him to a change in position by ICE.
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More ShortsAccording to that email, ICE was now “developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations.” Until that policy is issued, the SEVIS records for Zheng and similarly situated plaintiffs will remain active or will be restored, the email said.
With inputs from agencies