ICE reversing termination of legal status for international students in US, lawyer says

The federal government is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the US after many filed court challenges against the Trump administration crackdown, a government lawyer said on Friday.

The records in a federal student database maintained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been terminated in recent weeks, often without the students or their schools being notified.

Judges around the country had already issued orders temporarily restoring the students’ records in dozens of lawsuits challenging the terminations.

More than 1,200 students nationwide suddenly lost their legal status or had visas revoked, leaving them at risk for deportation. Some left the country while others have gone into hiding or stopped going to class.

In one of the lawsuits, a lawyer for the government read a statement in federal court in Oakland, California, that said ICE was restoring the student status for people whose records were terminated in recent weeks.

Also on Friday, the statement was read by a government lawyer in a separate case in Washington, said lawyer Brian Green, who represents the plaintiff in that case. Green provided Associated Press with a copy of the statement that the government lawyer emailed to him.