Lawsuits have been flying and judicial restraining orders have been issued following the revocation earlier this month of the visas of thousands of international college students in the United States, abruptly eliminating their legal immigration status here. Now, the Trump administration has somewhat reversed course on that move: In federal court on Friday, the Justice Department announced it will now restore the profiles of those students to the federal SEVIS database that kept tabs on visa holders, though it appears the reprieve may only be temporary for some, reports Politico.
That's because, per the DOJ, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is working on new protocols for foreigners studying in the US on F-1 visas. Until that policy is completed, the Justice Department says that no students will have their records purged from SEVIS (full name: the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, per Newsweek) "solely based on" criminal history checks that have on occasion turned up misdemeanor charges or dismissed cases. Some of the alleged minor infractions included speeding citations or parking tickets.
"It was not immediately clear whether the State Department is reversing a wave of outright cancellation of the visas of many of the same students," notes Politico, adding that last week, a federal official said in court that "quality control" was being carried out on the visa decisions. "ICE maintains the authority to terminate a SEVIS record for other reasons, such as if the plaintiff fails to maintain his or her nonimmigrant status after the record is reactivated or engages in other unlawful activity that would render him or her removable from the United States," a DOJ attorney says in a statement. (More foreign students stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
