ICE is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the US

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. government is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the country after many filed court challenges against the Trump administration crackdown, federal officials said Friday.

The records in a federal student database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been terminated in recent weeks. Judges across the U.S. had already issued orders temporarily restoring students' records in dozens of lawsuits challenging the terminations.

More than 1,200 students nationwide suddenly lost their legal status or had visas revoked, leaving them at risk for deportation. Many said they had only minor infractions on their record or did not know why they were targeted. Some left the country while others have gone into hiding or stopped going to class.

Government says it will restore student status

Word of the policy pivot came Friday from lawyers representing the government in several of the lawsuits.

A lawyer for the plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, Brian Green, provided The Associated Press with a copy of a statement a government lawyer emailed to him on the restoration of legal status for people whose records were recently terminated.

It says: ''ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations. Until such a policy is issued, the SEVIS records for plaintiff(s) in this case (and other similarly situated plaintiffs) will remain Active or shall be re-activated if not currently active and ICE will not modify the record solely based on the NCIC finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination."

SEVIS is the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database that tracks international students' compliance with their visa status. NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, a database of criminal justice information maintained by the FBI.

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant Homeland Security secretary, said ICE had not reversed course on any visa revocations but did ''restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked.''

Several colleges said Friday they noticed legal status already had been restored for some of their students, but uncertainty remained.

''It is still unclear whether ICE will restore status to everyone it has targeted and whether the State Department will help students whose visas were wrongly revoked,'' said Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Legal fights may not be over

Green, who is involved in lawsuits on behalf of several dozen students, said his cases only sought restoration of the student status and that he would be withdrawing them as a result of the statement Friday from ICE.

But lawyers in the Oakland case are seeking a nationwide order from the court prohibiting the government from arresting or incarcerating students, transferring them to places outside their district or preventing them from continuing work or studies.

Pam Johann, a government lawyer, said it was premature to consider anything like that given that ICE was in the process of reactivating records and developing a policy. ''We should take a pause while ICE is implementing this change that plaintiffs are seeking right now, on its own,'' she said.

But U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White asked her to humor the court.

''It seems like with this administration there's a new world order every single day,'' he said. ''It's like whack-a-mole.''

He ordered the government to clarify the new policy.

Visa revocations and student status terminations caused confusion

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department was revoking visas held by people acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel's war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges. But many students whose status was terminated said they did not fall under those categories.

A survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs research found that even the visa revocations for students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests are more unpopular than popular. About half of U.S. adults oppose this policy, and only 3 in 10 are in support. Among college educated adults, 6 in 10 strongly oppose, compared with 4 in 10 who aren't college graduates.

In lawsuits, students argued they were denied due process. Many were told that their status was terminated as a result of a criminal records check or that their visa had been revoked.

International students and their schools were caught off guard by the terminations of the students' records. Many of the terminations were discovered when school officials were doing routine checks of the international student database.

Charles Kuck, who filed a case in Atlanta on behalf of 133 students across the country said ICE's reversal can't undo the distress and hardship they have faced in recent weeks.

''I've got kids who lost their jobs, who might not get them back,'' he said. ''I've got kids who lost school opportunities who might not get them back. We've got kids who missed finals, missed graduation. How do you get any of that stuff back?''

Jodie Ferise, a higher education attorney in Indiana, said some students at schools her law firm works with already left the country after receiving instructions to self-deport.

''This unprecedented treatment of student status had caused tremendous fear among international students," Ferise said. ''Some of them were too frightened to wait and hope for the administration to change course.''

Earlier this week, before the government's reversal, Ferise said the situation could hurt international student enrollment.

''The world is watching, and we will lose students, not just by the technical revocation of their status, but by the message we're sending that we don't want them anyway and that it isn't safe to even try to go to school here,'' she said.

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. The AP has been working to confirm reports of hundreds more students who are caught up in the crackdown.

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Brumback reported from Atlanta. Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Annie Ma, Rebecca Santana and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed reporting.