Government lawyers across the country on Friday announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will reverse its termination of students’ legal immigration statuses.
At least 11 affiliated with UMass Boston and five at UMass Amherst were affected by the revocations. According to The New York Times, more than 1,500 international students were affected nationwide.
During an 11 a.m. hearing, a government lawyer told District of Massachusetts Chief Judge Frank Saylor that ICE would reinstate a Boston University student’s legal status as part of “a nationwide change in policy,” the judge wrote in a temporary restraining order enforcing the government’s announcement.
The Associated Press reports that attorneys for the government in Oakland and Washington read statements at similar hearings that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is manually restoring students’ revoked statuses in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database.
“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,” read a statement provided to the Associated Press by attorney Brian Green, who represents a student in Washington and said he received the statement via email.
In recent weeks, students had filed dozens of challenges to the revocations, at least five of which are pending in Massachusetts on behalf of at least 13 students. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire also filed a class action lawsuit April 18 representing more than 100 international students in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico, they wrote in a statement.
Saylor had previously issued a temporary restraining order, which expired today, preventing the government “from arresting or detaining” the BU student. His new order directs them to “re-activate and restore the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System record belonging to plaintiff … as soon as reasonably practicable.”
The BU student believed her status was revoked due to a Nov. 24 arrest for five traffic offenses, of which she was found “not responsible” for four and the remaining charge was dismissed, according to court documents.
In another case, Massachusetts District Judge Patti Saris issued a similar temporary order April 15, barring the government from arresting or deporting an MIT graduate student whose status was revoked due to a criminal charge that “was later deemed unfounded and dismissed without a conviction by the court.” The judge had extended that order during a hearing Tuesday, at which the government argued they did not have to reinstate her status.
This is a developing story. Click here to read live updates.
Correction: A previous version of this article reported that the Trump administration will reinstate revoked student visas. They are reinstating terminated legal immigration statuses in the SEVIS database, not revoked visas.
