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Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DHS memo offers new guidance on terminating status of international students
AUSTIN (KXAN) — An internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo filed in court this week indicates what could be new guidance for when an international student can have their legal status terminated, though the policy has not been published in the official journal of the federal government, which shows agency rules and public notices. The change in guidance comes after ICE abruptly terminated the status of thousands of international students from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS — a database that tracks the minute-to-minute status of international students attending schools and participating in job training in the United States. Last week, after nearly 100 lawsuits were filed challenging the terminations, the federal government informed federal judges through a statement that it would reactivate the SEVIS records for thousands of students it had terminated from the system in recent weeks. Some universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, indicated that some students have had their visas reactivated in the SEVIS database. ICE restoring international students' visa registrations The filing from the federal government said, in part, '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.' 'That lasted about 24 hours over the weekend. We got updates saying that ICE was deleting the sentence about 'we will not revoke or terminate SEVIS terminations for the same reasons',' according to Denver-based immigration attorney Brian Green. 'It makes it sound like they're going to re-terminate some of those people again for the same reasons… It's a changing landscape basically every day.' The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to KXAN's questions about the new guidance or the SEVIS terminations. The new guidance, dated April 26, appears to expand the reasons why a student's legal status can be terminated in SEVIS. The policy states that the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, or SEVP, can terminate a student's record in SEVIS if the state department revokes their visa. 'It's not clear at this point if this is the new policy that they promised, because it hasn't been broadcast to the schools. So, we are still kind of trying to figure out what exactly that means, and there are some concerns about the new claims that the government is making in that document,' Maryland-based immigration attorney Anna Stepanova said. KXAN confirmed that at least 104 international students based in Texas had visas revoked or had their immigration status marked as terminated in SEVIS in recent weeks. Our reporting partner, the Texas Tribune, reports the number is at least 252 statewide. KXAN has reached out to universities across the state to independently verify those numbers. Green is currently representing more than 30 students across the country who were deleted from SEVIS, including six people based in Texas. Immigration statuses revoked for dozens of international students at Texas universities According to Green, all the individuals deleted from the system appear to have had some interaction with law enforcement during their time in the U.S., which was recorded in the National Crime Information Center database. The offenses, according to Green and other immigration attorneys, range from traffic citations to more serious crimes like driving under the influence. In some cases, immigration attorneys say charges were never filed or were dropped. Stepanova said none of the cases she is aware of meet the current law's criteria for a status violation. 'The law is very specific. It has to be a conviction for a crime of violence for which a term of imprisonment should be one year or more,' Stepanova said. Green said his clients got notice in early April that they had been terminated from the system. Along with a message saying, 'Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has a visa revoked.' His lawsuit, filed on behalf of 23 international students, argues that the termination was 'unlawful,' violated the students' Fifth Amendment rights to due process and put them at risk of 'abrupt detention' without prior notice. Court records indicate that the six Texas-based international students represented in the lawsuit had recently graduated and were completing their Optional Practical Training, or OPT, which allows eligible international students on F-1 visas to temporarily work in the United States in a field related to their studies. DHS Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a press release that it would 'consider aliens' antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests.' 'There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world's terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here,' DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said. 'They're reinstating 4,700 people in the SEVIS system. Maybe those people will be terminated again in a week or two. There's a lot of stress on a lot of students right now,' Green said. 'Foreign students are really upset and worried about what is going to happen to them.' KXAN's Digital Data Reporter Christopher Adams contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hindu
23-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Federal Court issues TRO on student visa records after lawsuit challenges SEVIS terminations
After the Murthy Law Firm filed a lawsuit against the federal government, a federal judge in Georgia issued Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs) restoring Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records for 133 international students who sued over unlawful SEVIS terminations. This comes after the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revoked Visas of International students and terminated their SEVIS records, citing encounters with law enforcement, many without any conviction. Anna Stepanova, assistant Managing Attorney, Murthy law firm, said the SEVIS reinstatements ordered by various federal judges are the result of Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs), which, at this time, provide a temporary reinstatement of plaintiffs' SEVIS records until the lawsuit is resolved via a final order from the judge. However, the standard for granting a TRO is a showing of a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of the case. This is generally seen as a positive development in the SEVIS terminations litigation. Background Late last month, the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, reported that DOS revoked more than 300 student visas and announced a new 'Catch and Revoke' program that uses AI-assisted reviews to screen social media posts of student visa holders. According to a verified source cited by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), out of 4,736 SEVIS records that the ICE has terminated since January 20, 2025, 50 per cent were Indians, with the majority being on F-1 visa status. Chinese students accounted for 14%, and a significant number of students were from Nepal, South Korea, and Bangladesh. The AILA report had indicated that 50 per cent of students were on Optimal Practical Training (OPT), which means that they had graduated and were employed in the U.S. Many Indian students especially from the STEM fields after their graduation work in the U.S. temporarily for 12 months with an additional extension of up to 36 under Optimal Practical Training. Many of the students who are doing their OPTs hope to secure a working career in the U.S. It is very difficult to secure an H1B visa in the U.S., for all these students who want to survive in the U.S., these OPTs open doors for them. Possible reasons for terminations The AILA study found many of those whose visas had been revoked had been in police reports for minor traffic violations or campus infractions, while in an extreme case, a student who was a victim of domestic abuse had their visa cancelled because their name appeared in the police complaint. Only two of the 327 responses received pertained to allegations that the students were involved in any political activity, and lawyers have pointed out that protesting is not illegal per se, and that the students risked losing their futures due to the government's action. As per Immigration attorneys in the U.S., the Department of State does not appear to have any rules or specific regulations that the DOS or ICE have mentioned or cited in the revocation letters issued to the students whose visas have been revoked and whose SEVIS records have been terminated. Sheela Murthy, President and CEO, Murthy Law Firm said, 'Generally, the reasons for the termination tend to be the person having some type of a fingerprint check or record with law enforcement. This includes incorrect cases that were filed and completely dismissed as baseless charges, or in some cases, there are pending investigations or ongoing cases in court.' Ms. Murthy said, 'In a few instances, it has been for simply showing support for a certain ideology, attending a march, or even showing a preferance for a certain ideology or in some case cases it appears to be a case of mistaken identity for a person being in the vicinity of a protest march.' State of confusion Ms. Murthy, said that there are no clear cut or simple avenues to challenge these decisions. The majority of the affected students have been filing federal lawsuits to reinstate their F1 status. Some courts have required the government to reinstate the student's status, and in other cases, the courts are not sure that the status of the student has been revoked or terminated merely because the SEVIS has been terminated. Ms. Murthy says that to date, the first has not received any deportation or removal notice for these students who have been impacted. We know many of them who have simply departed/traveled out of the US because they have been told that they need to leave immediately or they may be subject to deportation/removal. Ms. Murthy says other students are confused as to what to do, especially if they are in the middle of their education, for example, they may have a year or two to graduate, and they have invested their and their parents life savings to attend these universities to obtain the coveted U.S. degree, that will stand them in good stead anywhere in the world. Now, they are devastated and confused on how best to proceed. Ms. Murthy says even international student advisors or Designated School Officials (DSOs) are confused by the arguments made by the federal government that the termination of the SEVIS does not result in the status of the student being terminated. If that is not the case, nobody knows what exactly is going on, and even the government may be unclear since they are making up new rules and new ways to adversely impact students.
