On Friday (April 25), the Trump administration made concessions in a lawsuit over the revocation of legal status for international students, and will reinstate SEVIS visa registration for approximately thousands of international students. Previously, the student registration records of these international students had been removed from the government's database.

According to Newsweek, after weeks of strict review and dozens of restraining orders issued by multiple judges, the Department of Justice announced this decision in more than one federal court on Friday.

The incident earlier this month, where student registration records were removed from the federal database and student visas were revoked, triggered over a hundred lawsuits. More than fifty cases' presiding judges (involving at least 23 states) ordered the government to suspend the deportation of these students.

Newsweek reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Carilli stated in a federal court in Washington D.C. that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is formulating a framework for terminating records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). However, currently, all plaintiffs and other affected students will have their statuses restored.

Carilli read a written statement on Friday: ICE is formulating a policy to provide a framework for the termination of SEVIS records. Prior to the release of this policy, the SEVIS records of the plaintiffs in this case (and others in similar situations) will remain valid, and if currently inactive, they should be reactivated. ICE will not modify records solely based on the NCIC investigation results that led to the recent termination of SEVIS records.

Carilli stated on Friday that similar statements will also be submitted for other student visa cases nationwide.

According to Reuters, shortly before the hearing of Carrie Zheng's case at Boston University, U.S. District Judge F. Deniss Saylor received an email from government lawyers, notifying him that ICE's position had changed.

According to the email, ICE is currently formulating a policy to provide a framework for terminating SEVIS records. The email stated that prior to the release of this policy, the SEVIS records of Carrie Zheng and other plaintiffs in similar situations will remain valid or be reinstated.

SEVIS is short for Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. It is a web-based system used by the Department of Homeland Security to track the immigration status of foreign students (usually those holding F-1 visas) in the United States.

CNN reported that the resolution of these disputes will not affect the State Department's actions to revoke student visas.

The termination of student registrations, revocation of visas, and deportation actions have caused concern and panic among international students, who fear they may lose their legal status and be quickly deported. Many students who filed lawsuits stated that some schools even prevented them from continuing their studies or conducting research, with some students having only a few weeks left until graduation.

According to a report released by the international education website PIE News on Thursday (April 24), so far, more than 1,800 international students at least 270 universities in the U.S. have had their visas revoked. As of April 18, Indian students ranked first, while Chinese students ranked second, with at least 285 Chinese students losing their visas.

However, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, since January 20, more than 4,700 student records have been removed from the database maintained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (i.e., the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System).

According to a report released by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and the Institute of International Education, over 1.1 million international students studied at U.S. colleges during the 2023-2024 academic year, setting a new record high.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7497327531045945896/

Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author alone. Please express your attitude by clicking the "Upvote/Downvote" button below.