Immigration authorities are rescinding a decision to terminate the visas of international students as part of President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation program, a federal official said April 25.
That’s the same day federal officials arrested a judge on charges of helping an illegal immigrant escape a courtroom.
The student reversal was disclosed amid a flurry of restraining orders issued by judges requiring U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement to restore the legal status of international students, Associated Press reported.
Often without notifying students or their schools, ICE had deleted student records from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database, a web-based index used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to monitor nonimmigrant foreign students and exchange visitors.
In many cases, students were not told their records had been deleted from the system, while in some instances they were told the removal resulted from alleged criminal activity uncovered in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, or NCIS. Many students did not learn of status changes until notified by schools following routine checks of international databases.
News the records would be manually restored came from a statement read by a U.S. attorney in a federal court in Oakland, Calif., and later shared with AP.
Marco Rubio (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“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 said.
The reversal was unusually swift and far-reaching for an administration that has been intent on removing immigrants for the smallest of provocations.
Inside Higher Education said the initial purge affected more than 1,800 students who lost F-1 or J-1 status in what the administration described as a crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the revocations were aimed at students who came into the U.S. “‘not just to study but to participate in movements that vandalize universities, harass students, take over buildings and cause chaos.’”
But aside from a few high-profile examples, little evidence has been presented to justify the student removals.
The Trump administration has been aggressive in attempting to deport some foreign students, including Syrian-born Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student arrested by ICE and facing deportation for participating in demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.
At least 290 students or recent graduates challenged their status changes in at least 65 federal lawsuits, with numerous favorable rulings, Inside Higher Education reported. Plaintiffs included individuals studying for undergraduate and graduate degrees and recent graduates cleared to remain in the U.S. to work for a limited time.
Judge Hannah Dugan with a statuette of Abraham Lincoln
The administration’s change of course came on the same day FBI agents arrested a state judge in Wisconsin, accusing her of shielding an undocumented immigrant from apprehension, The New York Times reported. “The administration has demanded, under threat of investigation or prosecution, that local officials not impede federal efforts to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.”
According to the criminal complaint against her, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was charged with “obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency” and “concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.”
The incident occurred the morning of April 18 when ICE, FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency agents went to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who had been deported to Mexico in 2013 and subsequently returned without permission.
After informing the agents they needed a judicial warrant instead of their administrative warrant to arrest someone at the courthouse, Dugan directed them to speak with the chief judge. She was then spotted escorting Ruiz and his attorney out through the jury door. Flores-Ruiz was later apprehended after a foot chase outside the courthouse, the complaint says.
The Times report added Dugan was later released on her own recognizance after a hearing in federal court, and that Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel both defended her arrest.
In an interview on Fox News, Bondi said she thinks some judges are “deranged.”
Pam Bondi speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference meeting on February 23, 2024, in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
While she has refused to enforce court judgments against Trump and his administration, she declared: “I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law. And they are not.”
Trump previously said judges who challenge him and his actions — whether they are legal or not — should be removed from office.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said the government’s arrest of Dugan was mishandled.
“Like all United States citizens, Judge Hannah Dugan is entitled to her constitutional right to due process. However, it is clear that the FBI is politicizing this situation to make an example of her and others across the country who oppose their attack on the judicial system and our nation’s immigration laws.”
Crowley pointed to a now-deleted statement by FBI Director Pash Patel on X that made “unsubstantiated claims” about Dugan before charges were filed.
“Director Patel’s statement shows that Trump’s FBI is more concerned about weaponizing federal law enforcement, punishing people without due process, and intimidating anyone who opposes those policies, than they are with seeking justice,” he said. “I am extremely concerned about the Trump administration’s continued intention to instill fear and hostility across our community.”
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