The US government has a new policy for terminating international students’ legal status
By MORIAH BALINGIT Associated Press WASHINGTON AP The U S authorities has begun shedding new light on a crackdown on international students spelling out how it targeted thousands of people and laying out the grounds for terminating their legal status The new details emerged in lawsuits filed by specific of the students who suddenly had their status canceled in up-to-date weeks with little explanation In the past month foreign students around the U S have been rattled to learn their records had been removed from a pupil database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement A few went into hiding for fear of being picked up by immigration officers or abandoned their studies to return home On Friday after mounting court challenges federal bureaucrats reported the ruling body was restoring international students legal status while it developed a framework to guide future terminations In a court filing Monday it shared the new framework a document issued over the weekend with guidance on a range of reasons students status can be canceled including the revocation of the visas they used to enter the U S Brad Banias an immigration attorney representing a learner whose status was terminated announced the new guidelines vastly expand ICE s authority beyond previous guidelines which did not count visa revocation as grounds for losing legal status This just gave them carte blanche to have the State Department revoke a visa and then deport those students even if they ve done nothing wrong Banias explained Various of the students who had visas revoked or lost their legal status commented they had only minor infractions on their record including driving infractions Specific did not know why they were targeted at all Lawyers for the cabinet provided specific explanation at a hearing Tuesday in the situation of Banias client Akshar Patel an international pupil studying information systems in Texas Patel s status was terminated and then reinstated this month and he is seeking a preliminary court ruling to keep him from being deported In court filings and in the hearing Department of Homeland Guard administrators disclosed they ran the names of trainee visa holders through the National Crime Information Center an FBI-run database that contains reams of information related to crimes It includes the names of defendants missing persons and people who have been arrested even if they have never been charged with a crime or had charges dropped In total about students were identified in the database search U S District Judge Ana Reyes reported in the hearing Tuesday One of the students was Patel who had been pulled over and charged with reckless driving in The charge was ultimately dropped information that is also in NCIC Patel appears in a spreadsheet with students whose names had come up in NCIC That spreadsheet was forwarded to a Homeland Safety official who within hours of receiving it replied Please terminate all in SEVIS That s a different database listing foreigners who have legal status as students in the U S Related Articles Judge skeptical of Trump administration argument that federal courts can t review dividing line declaration Wisconsin high court suspends Milwaukee judge accused of helping man evade immigration executives Trump administration tells Congress it plans to label Haitian gangs as foreign terror organizations Judge orders Trump administration to restore million for pro-democracy Radio Free Europe House GOP wants to pump billions into Trump s deportations and detentions as part of tax bill Reyes stated the short time frame suggested that no one had reviewed the records individually to find out why the students names came up in NCIC All of this could have been avoided if someone had taken a beat declared Reyes who was appointed by President Joe Biden She mentioned the administration had demonstrated an utter lack of concern for individuals who have come into this country When colleges discovered the students no longer had legal status it prompted chaos and confusion In the past college personnel say legal statuses typically were updated after colleges communicated the authorities the students were no longer studying at the school In particular cases colleges communicated students to stop working or taking classes and warned them they could be deported Still regime attorneys announced the change in the database did not mean the students really lost legal status even though various of the students were labeled failure to maintain status Instead lawyers noted it was intended to be an investigative red flag Mr Patel is lawfully present in the U S Andre Watson of the Department of Homeland Guard mentioned He is not subject to immediate detention or removal Reyes declined to issue a preliminary injunction and urged lawyers from both sides to come to a settlement to ensure Patel could stay in the U S The Associated Press training coverage receives financial endorsement from multiple private foundations AP 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