Why are so many students in Mass. losing their visas? The answer lies in a little-known database.
Higher education institutions, lawyers, and student advocacy groups are also
in the dark, scrambling to figure out how to safeguard students' due-process rights.
'Nothing about this is normal,' immigration attorney Dan Berger told the Globe in his Northampton office.
In the past, changes to a student's status were generally made by the colleges themselves, in a little-known database called the
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The database is run by ICE under the US Department of Homeland Security but is largely maintained by international student advisers or other designated school officials, who are responsible for reporting any changes to a student's good standing such as an arrest that might affect their status, in accordance with
But in recent weeks, ICE has gone into its own database to terminate student statuses without consulting or alerting the institutions, the colleges say. The only way schools have found out about these terminations is by actively monitoring the database for status changes.
'A revocation is like having the key to your apartment taken away. A termination is an eviction,' explained one SEVIS user, a higher education manager, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation by the federal government. 'The first means you can't enter. The second means you can't stay.'
The State Department is in charge of the actual visa travel document, typically stamped into a passport, that allows entry into the country.
But that pre-existing visa stamp can't help a student whose status is terminated in the SEVIS database.
Historically, students dealing with a potential status issue, like inadvertently enrolling below the required full course load, could consult with school officials to address it.
'Visa revocations were relatively rare,' said Berger, with most related to a criminal conviction.
FILE - Immigration attorney Dan Berger photographed in his Northampton office.
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
The Trump administration's arbitrary
termination of a student's status gives schools no chance to help fix the problem. It is, said Heather Yountz, a senior immigration attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, 'a clear violation' of the student's due-process rights under the Fifth Amendment.
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Miriam Feldblum, chief executive of the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, said her nonprofit has heard from hundreds of presidents, chancellors, and university administrators who say that while they typically work with the government to help students request corrections or explanations, they are now effectively shut out of the process.
Neither a spokesperson for Trump nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests for comment. In an email, the State Department said it 'looks at information that arises after the visa was issued that may indicate a potential visa ineligibility . . . pose a threat to public safety, or other situations where revocation is warranted,' such as 'arrests, criminal convictions, and engaging in conduct that is inconsistent with the visa classification.'
Because the process is ongoing, and the department 'revokes visas every day,'the number is 'dynamic.'
The University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. To date, 13 students have had their status terminated.
Lane Turner/Globe Staff
'This is a trap for students and for schools. If students don't leave the country and forgo their due-process rights, they could be arrested by ICE and sent to
'feels scary and difficult for students.'
But individual students and coalitions of schools are beginning to fight back. SEVIS is at the heart of a
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Also last week, the
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell on Friday co-led a group of 19 attorneys general in filing another
Berger and his firm, Green and Spiegel, have advised over 100 affected international students. He describes his role as 'triage' — quickly connecting them to other lawyers.
Yountz hears from students nearly every day who are leaving the country voluntarily, leaving behind research and unfinished degrees. She noted the Trump administration has created a chilling effect on students who 'are turning around and looking behind them and wondering if they're next.'
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Because the fear is that it could be anyone — for any reason. In the past,
'What does 'Other' mean?' asked the higher education manager. 'It feels brand new to us.'
To many, it also feels punitive and menacing in the current climate, which reminds some advocates of SEVIS's origins.
In this atmosphere, students are weighing whether it's even worth trying to stay. Many leave voluntarily in hopes of re-applying for a visa in the future, said Chris Richardson, an immigration attorney, former visa officer, and diplomat who founded Argo Visa, a visa consulting firm. He's spoken to students with minor infractions who are already traveling back to their native countries in hopes of protecting their record and preserving their ability to return to the US.
Those staying are living in a state of profound uncertainty. '[The practice] will no doubt decrease international enrollment in the US,' said Feldblum. 'What is being done is deterring, turning away, to say clearly 'you are not welcome here.''
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