Trump Administration Restores Thousands of Terminated Foreign Student Visa Records

Earlier this month, 4,700 foreign students were at risk of detainment after ICE inexplicably terminated their visa records.

The Trump administration is restoring thousands of foreign students' records, the Department of Justice announced on Friday. In a federal court hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Carilli said foreign students will return to "active" status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, also known as SEVIS, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) develops a new termination framework. SEVIS is a database used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that supplements foreign student visas and tracks activity at universities each semester.

Earlier this month, the SEVIS records of over 4,700 students were inexplicably terminated by ICE, which left many panicked and confused, believing their immigration status had been changed. Although a terminated SEVIS record doesn't automatically mean a visa has been revoked, DHS's guidance outlines penalties for termination that include being unauthorized to work on- or off-campus and unable to reenter the U.S., even though both are allowed with a valid F-1 or M-1 visa. Some chose to self-deport after receiving emails from DHS ordering students with terminated SEVIS records to leave the U.S. within seven days to avoid arrest. 

SEVIS records are typically only terminated after a student violates visa terms, "such as dropping below the necessary course load without approval or doing unauthorized work," according to Inside Higher Ed. However, to the surprise of students and universities, the latest terminations occurred only after students were flagged in a national database search showing interaction with law enforcement. Flagged interactions included dismissed or low-level charges, like small traffic violations, that do not warrant a visa termination. Other students say they've never been charged with a crime at all. 

Hundreds of students sued over the terminations, stating that schools wouldn't allow foreign students with terminated SEVIS records to continue taking classes or conducting research. Federal judges issued more than 50 emergency orders to block ICE from unilaterally terminating the records and ordered the Trump administration to "temporarily undo the actions," according to Politico.  

Reactivating foreign students' SEVIS records is a step in the right direction toward restoring due process for those who choose to come to the U.S. for education. However, the Trump administration's change in legal strategy doesn't mean its crackdown on immigrants is over.  

Comments

[MollyGodiva]

Does not matter. Damage is already done. They scared the hell out of every foreign student, kidnapped innocent students off the street and held them in harsh conditions. They exerted their dominance and showed their eagerness to disregard the law and due process to hurt innocent people.

[damikesc]

...but enough about your lurid fantasies...

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

Oh no. They'll have to abide by the terms of their Visas. ¡Que horrible!

No laws were disregarded you dumb act blue fuck.

[MollyGodiva]

There is no evidence they violated any terms of their visas.

[InsaneTrollLogic (Did the penguin tell you to do this?)]

You got a cite for that, sweet cheeks?

[Gaear Grimsrud]

So problem solved. But please don't link to Sullum. I know he's desperate because nobody actually reads his rants but it doesn't help your credibility to associate yourself with his overwrought blathering. Just saying.

[AT]

Seriously, I said the same thing to her like a week ago.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Here is a news flash, from someone who actually has a STEM degree.

There aren't a whole lot of domestic students who want to get STEM degrees. Because it's hard, and it's got math, and you have to study and stuff. So a great deal of the world-class scientific research that happens here, is performed by foreign students. If you don't want foreign students here, then you have to either (1) propose some idea to entice domestic students to pursue degrees in STEM, or (2) admit that the global center of scientific innovation is going to go somewhere else, probably to China. There really isn't a middle ground here.

You don't like it that supply chains run through China? What will you think when the next medical treatments are all invented in China? When all of the technology in your next car was invented in China?

[Vernon Depner]

No one here has said they don't want foreign students here.

[AT]

lol you don't have a STEM degree.

[InsaneTrollLogic (Did the penguin tell you to do this?)]

Got a cite for that supposed STEM degree of yours? As far as I’m concerned, you only have a BS degree. Of course, with you, it’s naturally piled higher & deeper.

[Restoring the Dream]

The problem is shown quite well in the picture. Face masks, nose rings and keffiyahs. You know their political stance right there.

[AT]

Y'know when I was a kid, a couple students in my grade school class got lice. All the kids in my class were told to stay home for a day (whether they had lice or not) while the classroom and shared areas were cleaned and sanitized, and to not come back if they showed any new/continued signs of lice. (And then, even though I didn't have lice, my mom still washed everything I owned on extra hot just to be sure.) The idea was to contain the outbreak, and then re-introduce the kids once they were lice-free.

It's a reasonable approach to an unpleasant problem that easily get out of control if not contained.

And I don't see why the same shouldn't apply here. Temporarily suspend all visas, close off any air travel into the nation to anyone who doesn't have an American passport, dragnet/deport all illegals, and get every single non-citizen out of the country.

Even if we just manage it for ONE DAY. 24 hours where the only people in America are actual Americans. That's enough to fully sanitize the nation, and then we can happily start letting visitors and citizenship applicants back in and exercise some control over the means by which they're allowed.

So long as they're metaphorically lice-free, obviously. Border jumpers are prevented entry completely. Visa holders have their visa reviewed against their conduct prior to temporary removal in order to get back in, and it revoked and their entry barred (we'll offer them a flight to their nation of choice) if we decide said conduct was unbecoming and/or exploitative of our gracious offer to be temporarily allowed in America.

And we don't even have to send them very far. In fact, we can pinky promise that we won't annex Greenland if they take only the temporary visa suspensions in for a day or two. That's a fair trade. (The illegals all go straight to CECOT, screw the courts they can't do anything about it.)

It's all very do-able. We could have this country lice-free within a year.

[TJJ2000]

Heaven-forbid the self-proclaimed refugees and asylum seekers can't get their ?free? education pony ride by STEALING from Americans.

[Don't look at me! (Tariffs are killing the penguin industry!)]

Seems like we lost an opportunity to have lower tuition.