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 Although a terminated SEVIS record doesn't automatically mean a visa has been revoked, DHS's guidance outlines penalties for termination that include being unauthorized to work on- or off-campus and unable to reenter the U.S., even though both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.
