Apr 25, 2025 10:40 PM IST
Judges across the US had already issued temporary orders to restore international students’ records in the ICE-maintained federal database.
A government attorney has announced that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reversing its decision to terminate the legal status of international students across the country.
A government lawyer told a federal court in Oakland that ICE is manually restoring student status for those whose records were recently terminated.
A similar statement was made in a separate Washington case on Friday, according to Brian Green, the plaintiff’s attorney, who shared a copy of the emailed statement with the Associated Press.
“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,” the statement reads.
SEVIS records terminated due to FBI checks
SEVIS, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, is a database that monitors international students’ visa compliance. NCIC, or the National Crime Information Center, is maintained by the FBI. Many students whose records were terminated were told it was due to a criminal records check or that their visas had been revoked.
The sudden terminations took both students and schools by surprise. In most cases, schools only discovered the changes during routine checks of the international student database or after learning of similar terminations affecting others.
Judges across the US had already issued temporary orders to restore international students’ records in the ICE-maintained federal database, after many were abruptly terminated in recent weeks without informing the students or their schools.
Green said the government lawyer confirmed the policy would apply to all affected students, not only those who had taken legal action.
With Associated Press inputs
