Latest news with #StudentandExchangeVisitorInformationSystems
Mint
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
US Blocked From Revoking Visa Status of Foreign Students
(Bloomberg) -- A California federal judge issued a nationwide order that bars the Trump administration from revoking the legal status of foreign students to study and work in the United States. The Thursday ruling from US District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland prohibits the administration from cancelling the legal status of international students without doing an individualized review and following the criteria laid out in federal regulations. The Trump administration earlier this year terminated the records of thousands of foreign nationals in what's known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database. The move came as the administration claimed it was taking steps to crack down on foreign students with criminal records. Separately, on Thursday the Trump administration notified Harvard University that it was revoking the school's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which means it could no longer enroll international students. White's order applies to individual students and not institutions. Cancelling records in the SEVIS database effectively means the students no longer have legal status in the country, placing them at risk of arrest, detention and even deportation. Last month, US officials reinstated the cancelled status of thousands of students in the face of several legal challenges. White wrote that he was concerned officials were trying to avoid judicial scrutiny by 'abruptly' changing positions to resolve individual cases in courts across the country. 'It is unclear how this game of whack-a-mole will end unless defendants are enjoined from skirting their own mandatory regulations,' White wrote. Challengers in the student SEVIS cases argued that the mass terminations were unlawful and that in at least some instances the administration had swept up students who didn't meet the standards for having their status revoked. White wrote that the students who sued in his court were likely to succeed in arguing their status revocations were 'arbitrary and capricious.' His order also blocks the administration from arresting or detaining students based on the SEVIS cancellations or 'imposing any adverse legal effect' while the litigation moves forward. The case is John Doe v. Trump, 25-cv-3140, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland). More stories like this are available on
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UI plaintiffs fear ICE may be creating new, unlawful policies to facilitate deportation
(Main photo courtesy of the University of Iowa; form courtesy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) Lawyers for four University of Iowa international students fighting their potential deportation are now telling a federal judge they fear federal officials may have crafted a new, unlawful policy to revoke their status as students. Last month, the four students sued Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director of ICE Todd Lyons in federal court. According to their lawsuit, each of the plaintiffs was admitted to the United States on an F-1 student visa. The lawsuit alleges that on April 10, 2025, ICE abruptly canceled, without explanation, the plaintiffs' status as students within DHS' Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems, or SEVIS, database. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A few days later, the lawsuit claims, three of the plaintiffs' visas were revoked without explanation. The three each received identical messages from U.S. embassies, warning them that 'remaining in the United States can result in fines, detention, and/or deportation.' The lawsuit alleges that Homeland Security has initiated a national policy of 'coercing international students into self-deportation by leveraging ambiguous student-status revocations, coupled with visa revocation notices and threatening language.' On April 24, the judge in the case entered a temporary restraining order blocking Homeland Security from detaining or deporting the plaintiffs. The judge is still considering a motion to convert that order to a longer-lasting preliminary injunction. Late last week, lawyers for Homeland Security submitted to the court a sworn statement from James Hicks, a division chief for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program within ICE. In his statement, Hicks said the SEVIS database has restored the plaintiffs' status as students to 'active' in keeping with the court's temporary restraining order. Hicks said that while outsiders can't see it, there is a new notation added in each student's electronic record indicating their active status was restored retroactively to the original date of termination. Lawyers for the students, however, appear to be less than satisfied by Hicks' assurances. 'Defendants have not backdated the restoration of plaintiffs' SEVIS status in a manner visible to designated school officers and other immigration agencies,' they responded in a court filing. They noted that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — which is a different entity from the similarly named Immigration and Customs Enforcement — 'may deny a benefit based on a student's failure to maintain status, and the Department of State, which could deny or revoke a visa at any time, including for failure to maintain status.' Unless the students' SEVIS record is modified in a way that is visible to all end-users of the system, Homeland Security and ICE are out of compliance with the court's temporary restraining order, attorneys for the students argue. Homeland Security's promise that it will not attempt again to terminate the four individuals' status as students provides little protection, they add, pointing to a new policy at ICE and the agency's limited promise that it won't try again to terminate the UI students' status in a manner that's 'based solely' on the criminal record check that triggered the initial attempt. On April 26, 2025, they point out, ICE implemented a new policy introducing two new grounds for student termination — visa revocation and failure to maintain status – that could now be applied to the four UI students. ICE and Homeland Security, the students' lawyers have told the court, 'have given no assurance that they will not terminate on these grounds.' The two federal agencies, they add, are 'staying notably silent on their new, unlawful grounds for termination.' The students' lawyers cite ICE's shifting policies as further evidence of the need for a preliminary injunction in the case. The four plaintiffs in the case are Sri Chaitanya Krishna Akondy, an Indian national now working for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services; Prasoon Kumar, an Indian national and chemical engineering student; Songli Cai, a Chinese national and third-year undergraduate student; and Haoran Yang, a Chinese national and third-year undergraduate and pre-doctorate student. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Epoch Times
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
US Changes Rules to Expedite Foreign Student Deportations
The federal government has changed the rules regarding the legal status of foreign students in the Unit ed States, allowing for an expedited deportation if their visas are revoked, according to an internal Previously, students who had their visa revoked were allowed to finish their studies in the United States, but could not reenter the country if they left. The chan ge was made after the State Department revoked thousands of student visas in recent weeks, although federal judges across the country later blocked many of the visas from being canceled. During a hearing in Washington federal court on April 29 is was revealed that the gove rnment had used artificial intelligence to cross-check the students' records against the National Crime Information Center database, and those with criminal records had their status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database changed to 'inactive." On April 26, lawyers for the government announced, in two separate court hearings, that the students' visas would be restored and the process for canceling their legal status would be overhauled. During one of those hearings in Washington, D.C. District Judge Ana Reyes said the government had acted too hastily, and had demonstrated 'an utter lack of concern for individuals who have come into this country.' Related Stories 4/25/2025 4/20/2025 'All of this could have been avoided if someone had taken a beat,' she said. Reyes said 6,400 students were flagged in the search. Brad Banias, an attorney representing one of the student s—w ho was flagged after a records search showed a 2018 charge for reckless dri ving—said the new policy gave the government too much leeway in deporting student visa-holders. The previous policy did not consider visa revocation as grounds to expel students from the country, he said. According to the ICE memo, shared in an April 28 court filing , the revocation of a visa is now a valid reason to cancel legal status in the United States. 'This just gave them carte blanche to have the State Department revoke a visa and then deport those students, even if they've done nothing wrong,' Banias said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio 'Judges don't issue student visas,' Rubio said at the time. 'There is no right to a student visa. We can cancel a student visa under the law just the same way that we can deny a student visa under the law. And we will do so in cases we find appropriate.' The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As Trump admin restores WPI foreign student visas, ACLU lawyer urges caution
A lawyer for two Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) students whose visas were revoked by the Trump administration remains cautious over the government's decision to reverse the terminations. Gilles Bissonnette, Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Hampshire, is one of four ACLU affiliates in New England representing five international students in a class action lawsuit against the federal government. The lawsuit, which was filed this month in New Hampshire federal court, seeks to reinstate the student's terminated F-1 student visas, which would allow them to continue their studies, according to a written statement from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire. Of the five students in the lawsuit, two of them, Hangrui Zhang and Haoyang An, both from China — are students at WPI in Worcester, according to the lawsuit. The other students are Linkhith Babu Gorrela, Thanuj Kumar Gummadavelli, and Manikanta Pasula, who are all from India and students at Rivier University in New Hampshire. On Friday, the Department of Justice announced it would reverse the termination of visa registrations for international students studying in the United States, according to Politico. In court, the department said the records that were terminated from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (SEVIS) would be restored, according to the BBC. The SEVIS database is a web-based system used by the Department of Homeland Security to: Maintain information on schools certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program F-1 and M-1 students who come to the U.S. to attend those schools Department of State-designated Exchange Visitor Program sponsors J-1 visa Exchange Visitor Program participants All five students named in the class action lawsuit have been added back to the database, Bissonnette told MassLive on Monday. The lawyer, however, wants the government to assure him that the students will not see their statuses revoked again. 'I think what we remained concerned about and we want to make sure, there are protections for a scenario in which the students have the rug pulled out from them in the future,' Bissonnette said. 'We need to make sure in these cases that these students are protected going forward.' The revocations in April took place without any notice or legal explanation, Bissonnette said. He told MasLive on Monday that the government has not filed anything in the federal court about the revocations. He said his team and the government will meet in the coming days. He is looking for the government to prove in court that the students now have their F-1 student statuses again and that the government will not consider them terminated. 'That would provide significant protections and assurances to these students that this won't happen again,' Bissonnette said. If the government fails to provide the assurances and protections, he said his team will move the lawsuit forward. The defendants in the case are the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS); U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Boston Field Office; the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Manchester Sub-Field Office; DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. The status terminations disrupted the students' education in the middle of a semester as they worked to achieve degrees and followed all the rules required of them, according to the ACLU. Gorrela's graduation date for his master's program, for example, is May 20. With terminated F-1 statuses, the students are also now at risk of detention and deportation, the ACLU wrote. None of the five students have been detained as of April 28, but they are fearful for their lives, Bissonnette said. 'Not only do they live for several weeks in fear of possibly having their studies or training impacted — they live in fear now of 'Is ICE going to come knocking on my door?'' Bissonnette said. 'All we're asking for is just for the government to confirm that they maintain student status. It's pretty simple.' Downtown Worcester Mexican restaurant closes its doors American Airlines to bring back flights between Worcester and Philadelphia Former Speaker Pelosi: Rep. McGovern's daughter 'truly angelic in her goodness' Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Oregon student visas reinstated after being revoked by Homeland Security
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A handful of international college and university students in Oregon have had their visas reinstated after they were revoked by the Department of Homeland Security, school officials tell KOIN 6 News. This comes as the Trump administration is reversing course amid several lawsuits, after terminating the legal status of international students across the United States, as reported by . More than 1,200 international students in the U.S. suddenly lost their legal status or had their visas revoked, according to AP, noting many students said they had minor infractions on their record or did not know why they were being targeted. Now, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reversing the termination of the legal statuses in a federal database — the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems — which tracks students' compliance with their visas. Man burglarized Portland businesses by sawing holes into walls: court docs According to the University of Oregon, four international students have had their visas reinstated. This comes after DHS told the university the students were under investigation for criminal charges. However, a university spokesperson previously said the school was not given details about the nature of the charges. On Monday, the UO spokesperson told KOIN 6, 'The university never received clarification on the charges, but the Department of Homeland Security revoked the visa status of students who appeared in criminal records checks without regard to the nature of the allegations or the students' alleged involvement.' On air, '60 Minutes' reporter says 'none of us is happy' about changes that led top producer to quit The four UO students were in good academic standing, the university previously said, adding the school did not inform federal authorities of the students' alleged criminal actions and 'was not involved in any decisions with regard to their status.' 'Revocation like the ones students are experiencing are extremely rare,' UO said earlier in April. 'Our vice provost of global engagement has not seen this happen in his 20 years in his field.' In addition to the UO students, two Portland State University students had their visas reinstated, according to a PSU spokesperson. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 'We are pleased to see that the recent SEVIS record terminations have been reversed and that our impacted students have had their status restored,' Portland State University said in a statement. 'Our priority is always the well-being and academic success of our students, and we hope this decision allows them to refocus on their education and continue pursuing their goals without further disruption.' At Oregon State University, at least seven out of 13 international students have had their visas reinstated after their records were terminated from the federal database, officials said, noting no students were disenrolled at the time. The reinstated visas come after a . At least 1,220 students at 187 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked, their legal status terminated or both, since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
