The Trump administration Friday reversed its decision to revoke some international students’ visas after facing multiple lawsuits.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is working to restore the visas of students whose student visa records were terminated in recent weeks, the Associated Press reported Friday. More than 12,000 students in colleges and universities across the country have reportedly been affected, by the AP’s count.
At least one Middlebury College student’s status was affected, according to an announcement last week. University spokespersons declined to comment on whether the status is being restored.
“We are not able to provide information about any individual student or alumni,” wrote Julia Ferrante, a spokesperson for Middlebury, in an email Friday. “We are glad that these changes are occurring and where it impacts members of our community, we are in direct contact with those individuals.”
The announcement sent last week to faculty, staff and students stated that a Middlebury student and three alumni from the Middlebury Institute recently had their records terminated by the U.S. government in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, the Department of Homeland Security database that allows both universities and authorities to keep track of international students on visas in the U.S.
Middlebury College has signed on to an amicus brief for a lawsuit filed by the American Association of University Professors challenging the detentions and deportations happening on college campuses.
The news last month of SEVIS statuses being revoked came with orders to self-deport, sending many international students scrambling.
Soon after, in a Michigan court, the Department of Homeland Security stated that changes to SEVIS have no bearing on a student’s lawful status, sowing further confusion.
A University of Vermont spokesperson confirmed Friday that its students have not faced any visa revocations officials are aware of. Officials from St. Michael’s College also said they were not affected by the revocation.
“Out of respect for the safety and privacy of those community members, we will not be publicly sharing specific information related to our community members’ immigration or visa status,” Gretchen Galbraith, vice president of academic affairs and provost at St. Michael’s, said in an emailed statement.
Across Vermont, several colleges and universities declined to comment, some in an effort to safeguard student security.
The American Civil Liberties Union that brought some of the lawsuits challenging the student visa revocation celebrated the change Friday.
“The power of the people is stronger than the people in power,” said Hillary Rich, senior staff attorney with the Vermont ACLU, in a statement. “ACLU affiliates brought over a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration’s unlawful termination of student visas across the country — and now the administration has reversed course.”
