The Trump administration said on Friday that it is restoring the previously terminated legal statuses of hundreds of foreign students in the United States while it develops a new policy that will provide a framework for potentially ending them in the future.
The decision was announced during a court hearing before a federal judge in Boston who is presiding over a challenge by one of the many international students across the country who is suing over actions the administration took against them as part of Republican President Donald Trump's hardline crackdown on immigration.
Their legal status had been revoked as a result of their records being terminated from a database of the approximately 1.1 million foreign student visa holders, putting them at risk of deportation.
Since Trump took office on January 20, records for more than 4,700 students have been removed from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-maintained database known as Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (SEVIS), according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The database monitors compliance with visa terms and records foreign students' addresses, progress toward graduation and other information. To remain in the database, student visa holders have to obey conditions like limits on employment and avoiding illegal activity.
In court filings, the administration had said that it could end students' eligibility to be in the U.S. if they, for example, turn up in a criminal history search.
But hundreds of students in lawsuits filed in recent weeks said their records were terminated based on charges that had been dismissed or for minor offenses when legally their status could only be revoked if they were convicted of violent crimes.
Over 200 students removed from SEVIS have won court orders temporarily barring the administration from taking actions against them, according to a Reuters count, including Boston University student Carrie Zheng.
Shortly before a Friday hearing in her case, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor said he had received an email from a lawyer from the government alerting him to a change in position by ICE.
According to that email, ICE was now "developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations." Until that policy is issued, the SEVIS records for Zheng and similarly situated plaintiffs will remain active or will be restored, the email said.
The email said ICE maintains the authority to terminate students' SEVIS records for other reasons, including if they engage in other unlawful activity that would render them deportable.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a statement said the agency, which oversees ICE, did not reverse course on visa revocations but restored SEVIS access "for people who had not had their visa revoked."
Saylor said that given that the reactivation of the SEVIS records for the students would take some time, he would extend a temporary restraining order he previously issued barring immigration officials from arresting or deporting her.
Zheng's lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
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