US president Donald Trump’s administration has temporarily restored the legal status of thousands of international students, including Indians, following widespread legal challenges. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have emphasised that the restoration is only temporary and that the move could be reversed any time in the future.
The move, announced on April 25 during a federal court hearing in Washington, comes after several lawsuits and multiple restraining orders from judges. The lawsuits were filed challenging the abrupt termination of students’ records from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), often due to minor or dismissed offences, making their continued presence in the US illegal.
During the April 25 hearing, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had the court that ICE is working on a new system to review and terminate the SEVIS records.
SEVIS is a maintained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to track individuals on the F-1 (for academic students enrolled in universities, colleges, or language programs), J-1 (for exchange visitors, including students, researchers, and professionals participating in cultural or educational exchange programs) and M-1 (for vocational or non-academic students attending technical or trade schools) student visas. It also includes details of any disciplinary actions taken against a student or criminal charges faced by them.
The DHS has also reportedly clarified that there has been no revision of visas that had already been cancelled. As of now, only the SEVIS records that had been deleted have been restored. An anonymous DHS source confirmed to the that students whose SEVIS records were restored could still face termination at a later date.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration began a nationwide crackdown on college campuses, particularly targeting international students, including Indians, who had participated in protests against Israel. By April, these crackdowns extended to offences such as parking tickets or overspeeding. In some cases, these offences had been committed years ago, with students already having faced legal penalties like paying fines.
According to an NPR ICE revoked the SEVIS records of students who had even just faced disciplinary action within their universities. Close to 5,000 students had had their SEVIS records terminated, NPR also reports. Similarly, Reuters that 4,700 students had their records deleted since Trump took office in January.
Many students whose SEVIS records had been deleted – leaving them open to deportation and arrest – had already left the country. But hundreds have stayed back to challenge the deletion in courts. While some, including an Indian, have challenged the revocation of their status in court, students continue to live in .
In April, six international students, including an Indian, a lawsuit in New Hampshire against the revocation of their visas. The suit urges a federal judge to block the Trump administration from carrying out any further deportations across universities in the country.
