The Trump administration is restoring the legal status of international students who had their records completed in recent weeks, a government lawyer said on Friday at a hearing.
Elizabeth D. Kurlan, lawyer of the Department of Justice, said during the hearing in the northern district of California in Oakland that the records for international students will be reactivated at the moment, since immigration and customs believe a new policy that “will provide a framework for the State registration termination.”
The measure occurs weeks after the Trump administration began to revoke the visas of hundreds of international students, in addition to their legal records and states, apparently pointing to those who have participated in political activism or have had previous positions, such as DUI.
“The ICE still maintains the authority to finish a seis registration for other reasons,” Kurlan said at the audience, referring to the student and exchange visitors program, “as if a student does not maintain his non -immigrant status after the record is reactivated or involved in another illegal activity that would make him or his removables of the United States under the United States and the immigration and nationality law.” “
Many international students with finished states began to discover that their records were abruptly restored on Thursday afternoon, they said immigration lawyers and universities throughout the United States to NBC News. Reincorporations occurred with little or not explanation, lawyers said.
“It’s as if someone turned a light switch,” Jath Shao, an immigration lawyer based in Cleveland who has a client who experienced sudden reversal.
The changes have affected many, but not all, the students. At the University of California, Berkeley, a dozen of the 23 international students who had their records finished in the CEVIS weeks ago were reinstated, said University spokeswoman Janet Gilmore.
Some students from the Rochester Institute of Technology also experienced restoration, said school’s public information director Carl Langsenkamp. Charles Kuck, a Atlanta headquarters, said he has about a dozen clients who reported a similar reversal.
David Wilson, who represents about 20 students in Minnesota, said that approximately half of his clients have restored their states. He added, however, that there is still a lot of uncertainty, particularly because many of his student visas still remain revoked.
“That means they are a little trapped in the country. So that will be the next phase of looking for clarity about what the government is really doing,” Wilson said.
In addition, the termination of the State will still appear in the students’ records, endangering any future request for green cards or other relief, immigration lawyers said.
“The moment they finished their status of Sevis could still have harmful effects for these students,” said Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the Law Faculty of Columbia. “Therefore, it is not enough for the federal government to simply restore service records. The government would somehow need students to complete.”
Shao, the lawyer, said the development is small but positive for international students. However, he said that more to guarantee their safety in the United States
“At this time it is obvious that the Trump administration spent the four years of Biden conspiring its revenge for the immigration system,” Shao said. “But once some brave students and lawyers went to court, the Defenders of the Administration could not or were not willing to explain the logic.”
