AFor weeks of hearing rooms, student demonstrations and climbing universities and federal judges, the Trump administration has reversed a radical effort that has compromised the legal status of thousands of international students in the United States.
The Ministry of Justice announced on Friday that immigration and customs application (ICE) would restore immigration files for international students whose data on students' visa had been abruptly terminated, often due to minor or rejected legal offenses. The decision marks another retirement from an administration which made the application of immigration in the entire line a centerpiece of its second mandate.
Sudden mass dismissals at the beginning of the month, which, according to the American Immigration Law Law Association, had an impact on 4,700 students, sent shock via campuses across the country. The students were thrown into the legal limbo without notice, because their files in a system known as SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) were erased. This meant that they were not technically no longer in the country legally and at risk of detention and expulsion. Some have been prevented from taking courses or access to campus resources. Others, already in precarious positions, have been detained or forced to self-conform.
Judges at least 23 states have issued emergency orders temporarily blocking government actions, slamming this decision as arbitrary, opaque and potentially illegal. More than 100 proceedings have been filed – by students, universities and defenders' defense organizations, which violated layoffs and targeted students without sufficient cause.
The reversal of the Trump administration intervened just a few hours before the ICE officials testify under the challenge of the court. “ICE develops a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS registered layoffs,” a lawyer of the Ministry of Justice said on Friday Politicoreporting a temporary judgment of the practice to revoke files only on the basis of previous legal meetings.
Here's what you need to know about what it means for international students in the United States.
Who is still at risk?
For many students affected, the path to follow remains clear.
The widely published cases of Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil, for example, who are both entangled in national security and broader foreign policy debates, reflect the continuous ambiguity surrounding the intention of the administration. Öztürk, a doctoral student at TUFTS University, was detained in Massachusetts after the ice agents confronted her with the street. His F-1 visa had been quietly revoked a few days earlier, allegedly for “activities in support of Hamas”, although his lawyers say that the real reason was his frank support for Palestinian rights.
Khalil, a permanent American resident and pro -Palestinian activist at Columbia University, faces an expulsion procedure following an order from the State Department, stripping him of his green card – a dramatic climbing in a campaign which, according to criticism, is as political as they are legal.
Although the government's reversal applies to students with “minor” or “licensed” legal offenses – such as traffic offenses or abandoned accusations – it is not clear if business like Öztürk or the fall of Khalil are under the inversion of the Trump administration. ICE retains the power to terminate a student's file for national security problems or other violations of immigration law.
The State Department, which has revoked many student visas separately, did not respond to a request for comments on the question of whether these cancellations are also reversed.
The quiet expansion of the ice control of the campus control
The origins of mass dismissals of student visas remain troubled. Students from all over the country have reported Learn their loss of status only through school administrators or lawyers. Several said they had never been arrested or even aware of the accusations.
Traditionally, they are universities, through designated officers, who inform the changes in the status of a student. Under the Trump administration, the ice began to take more direct control, in what immigration lawyers describe as a dramatic change.
Although Ice and the State Department have designed actions as necessary to protect national security and respect immigration law, criticisms argue that repression is part of a wider scheme: universities pressure to comply with the priorities of the administration, in particular the limitation of political dissent.
This year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that students engaging in pro-Palestinian activism could face visas for having allegedly undermined American foreign policy. The campaign made comparisons with post-September 11 monitoring of Muslim students and academics, but with new digital tools.
