The Trump Administration Changes Tone and Restores SEVIS Records to International Students — Visa Lawyer Blog – April 28, 2025

These SEVIS terminations automatically exposed students to unlawful presence in the United States, and the risk of deportation. These SEVIS terminations automatically exposed students to unlawful presence in the United States, and the risk of deportation.

It was further discovered that ICE utilized AI assisted programs to screen the social media posts of F-1 international students and terminated their legal status based on antisemitic activity or alleged support for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

In response, students across the country sued the government to preserve their status, leading federal judges to issue a series of emergency orders to stop the government from cancelling visas and SEVIS records.

On Friday, April 25th in response to these legal challenges, in a court hearing in Washington D.C., the Trump administration revealed that it had restored the SEVIS records of thousands of international students, but insisted it was only doing so as a temporary reprieve and would not be reinstating visas that were previously revoked.

According to a Justice Department lawyer:

“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

(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 National Crime Information Center (NCIC) finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination.

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 under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”[named]DHS Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin further clarified that reinstatements will only be made for prior SEVIS terminations, not visa revocations:[lawsuits]”We have not reversed course on a single visa revocation. What we did is restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked.”

Notably, many international students affected by these terminations voluntarily left the country fearing the prospect of deportation. Others have lost job offers and some have faced prolonged detention.

While the government has tried to dismiss many of the legal challenges against it arguing that the SEVIS reinstatements has made them unnecessary, many continue to appear on court dockets across the country.

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