‘Sweeping’ student Visa revocation reversed as Trump admin backs down amid lawsuits

In a sudden and unexpected change, the Trump administration announced it would restore the active status of thousands of foreign students whose records had been removed from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) earlier this month. The Justice Department shared this update in federal court after weeks of strong legal pushback against the administration’s broad decision.

As reported by Politico and Newsweek, the original decision started almost two months ago. It led to around 5,000 students losing their visas or legal status, putting them in danger of being deported right away. This move caused widespread anger and led to an unusually high number of legal challenges. Close to 100 lawsuits were filed nationwide to fight the administration’s decision.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Carilli told a federal court in Washington, D.C., that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was working on a new set of rules for when SEVIS records could be terminated. He said that until this new policy was finished, all the students involved in the lawsuit and others in the same situation would have their statuses restored.

Student Visas restored as US walks back decision

The SEVIS system, an online database run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is essential for keeping track of the immigration status of foreign students in the U.S., many of whom are here on F-1 visas. The administration’s earlier actions caused major disruptions to this system, leaving thousands of students in an uncertain legal situation.

The wave of revocations started with well-known individual cases, like that of Rumeysa Ozturk in Massachusetts. But soon, the problem grew to include a much larger number of students across the country. Many of these students had not been accused of serious crimes, and in some cases, no crimes at all. Some had only minor offenses, such as speeding tickets.

The decision to reverse course is a major setback for the Trump administration, showing how strong the legal opposition was. The large number of lawsuits and the possibility of widespread negative consequences eventually led to the choice to restore the students’ visas.

Carilli’s statement to the court explained the administration’s reasoning for the reversal: “ICE is working on a policy that will set clear rules for when SEVIS records can be terminated. Until this policy is ready, the SEVIS records for the students in this case (and others in similar situations) will stay active or be reactivated if they are currently inactive. ICE will not change the records just because of the NCIC findings that led to the recent SEVIS terminations.” He also said similar statements would be submitted in other ongoing student visa cases nationwide.