ICE is reversing the termination of legal status for international
students around the US
[April 26, 2025]
By JANIE HAR and KATE BRUMBACK
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. government is reversing the termination of
legal status for international students around the country after many
filed court challenges against the Trump administration crackdown,
federal officials said Friday.
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.
More than 1,200 students nationwide suddenly lost their legal status or
had visas revoked, leaving them at risk for deportation. Many said they
had only minor infractions on their record or did not know why they were
targeted. Some left the country while others have gone into hiding or
stopped going to class.
Government says it will restore student status
Word of the policy pivot came Friday from lawyers representing the
government in several of the lawsuits.
A lawyer for the plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, Brian Green, provided
The Associated Press with a copy of a statement a government lawyer
emailed to him on the restoration of legal status for people whose
records were recently terminated.
It says: “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."
SEVIS is the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database
that tracks international students’ compliance with their visa status.
NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, a database of criminal
justice information maintained by the FBI.
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.”
Several colleges said Friday they noticed legal status already had been
restored for some of their students, but 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,” said Greg Chen of the American Immigration
Lawyers Association.
Legal fights may not be over
Green, who is involved in lawsuits on behalf of several dozen students,
said his cases only sought restoration of the student status and that he
would be withdrawing them as a result of the statement Friday from ICE.
But lawyers in the Oakland case are seeking a nationwide order from the
court prohibiting the government from arresting or incarcerating
students, transferring them to places outside their district or
preventing them from continuing work or studies.
Pam Johann, a government lawyer, said it was premature to consider
anything like that given that ICE was in the process of reactivating
records and developing a policy. “We should take a pause while ICE is
implementing this change that plaintiffs are seeking right now, on its
own,” she said.
But U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White asked her to humor the court.
“It seems like with this administration there’s a new world order every
single day,” he said. “It’s like whack-a-mole.”
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Students march at Arizona State University in protest of ASU's
chapter of College Republicans United-led event encouraging students
to report "their criminal classmates to ICE for deportations", Jan.
31, 2025, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
He ordered the government to clarify the new policy.
Visa revocations and student status terminations caused confusion
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department was
revoking visas held by people acting counter to national interests,
including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who face
criminal charges. But many students whose status was terminated said
they did not fall under those categories.
A survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs
research found that even the visa revocations for students who
participated in pro-Palestinian protests are more unpopular than
popular. About half of U.S. adults oppose this policy, and only 3 in
10 are in support. Among college educated adults, 6 in 10 strongly
oppose, compared with 4 in 10 who aren’t college graduates.
In lawsuits, students argued they were denied due process. Many were
told that their status was terminated as a result of a criminal
records check or that their visa had been revoked.
International students and their schools were caught off guard by
the terminations of the students' records. Many of the terminations
were discovered when school officials were doing routine checks of
the international student database.
Charles Kuck, who filed a case in Atlanta on behalf of 133 students
across the country said ICE's reversal can't undo the distress and
hardship they have faced in recent weeks.
“I’ve got kids who lost their jobs, who might not get them back,” he
said. “I’ve got kids who lost school opportunities who might not get
them back. We’ve got kids who missed finals, missed graduation. How
do you get any of that stuff back?”
Jodie Ferise, a higher education attorney in Indiana, said some
students at schools her law firm works with already left the country
after receiving instructions to self-deport.
“This unprecedented treatment of student status had caused
tremendous fear among international students," Ferise said. “Some of
them were too frightened to wait and hope for the administration to
change course.”
Earlier this week, before the government's reversal, Ferise said the
situation could hurt international student enrollment.
“The world is watching, and we will lose students, not just by the
technical revocation of their status, but by the message we’re
sending that we don’t want them anyway and that it isn’t safe to
even try to go to school here,” she said.
At least 1,220 students at 187 colleges, universities and university
systems have had their visas revoked, their legal status terminated
or both, since late March, according to an Associated Press review
of university statements, correspondence with school officials and
court records. The AP has been working to confirm reports of
hundreds more students who are caught up in the crackdown.
___
Brumback reported from Atlanta. Christopher L. Keller in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina,
and Annie Ma, Rebecca Santana and Linley Sanders in Washington
contributed reporting.
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