International college students in Utah celebrate after Trump reverses course

SALT LAKE CITY — International students studying at Utah colleges are counted among the hundreds of students whose recently revoked visas are reportedly being restored following an abrupt announcement by the Trump administration.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday that it is restoring the previously terminated legal statuses of hundreds of foreign students in the United States while it develops a new policy that will provide a framework for potentially ending them in the future, according to Reuters.

The update was announced during a court hearing before a federal judge in Boston, who is presiding over a challenge by one of the many international students across the country who are suing over immigration actions taken by the Trump administration in recent weeks.

The nationwide scope of the student visa registration issue has prompted wide and often passionate public reactions — including in Utah.

Almost all of Utah's degree-granting colleges have reported visa registration revocations among their international students. And Utah is counted among the many states where the revocations prompted legal challenges.

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah and several local immigration attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of nine international students in Utah whose SEVIS registration records were "abruptly terminated without explanation."

In a complaint filed last Friday, nine plaintiffs identified as "John Doe" or "Jane Doe" petitioned the U.S. District Court to allow them to continue their studies in Utah by reinstating them in the SEVIS registry.

The plaintiffs, according to the complaint, are using pseudonyms "due to fear of retaliation by defendants."

SEVIS is the web-based system that the Department of Homeland Security uses to maintain information on international students enrolled in schools in the United States.

The termination of a SEVIS record "effectively ends student status," according to the court complaint.

"Upon SEVIS termination, the student instantly becomes out of status, losing all employment authorizations and student privileges," the complaint added.

Utah immigration attorney Adam Crayk represents international students impacted by the recent federal actions. He was pleased with Friday's news from Boston — but not surprised.

"The Department of Homeland Security has been losing these temporary restraining orders all over the country because these SEVIS revocations were were not done appropriately — they were not done in a way that allowed for human review," Crayk told the Deseret News.

"Now they are unilaterally reinstating basically everybody's SEVIS, and I would assume they'll start going person-by-person, based on their National Crime Information Center searches, to look at them individually," Crayk said.

Crayk said his Utah clients "are elated" with Friday's news. "They're all very happy. Their lives are reinstated."

Legal statuses restored — for now

Hundreds of students in lawsuits filed in recent weeks said their records were terminated based on charges that had been dismissed or for minor offenses when legally their status could only be revoked if they were convicted of violent crimes, Reuters reported.

Similar actions were taken against Brigham Young University doctoral student Suguru Onda, whose own legal status was stripped then restored recently.

Outside of a couple of speeding tickets, Onda had only one legal hiccup during his six years of study in the United States. He was reportedly cited for harvesting more fish than his fishing license allowed during a 2019 outing with his Latter-day Saint church group.

The fishing charge was later dismissed and, last week, Onda learned his legal student status had been reinstated.

Over 200 students removed from SEVIS have won court orders temporarily barring the administration from taking action against them, according to a Reuters count, including Boston University student Carrie Zheng.

Shortly before a Friday hearing in Zheng's case, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor said he had received an email from a lawyer from the government alerting him to a change in position by ICE, Reuters reported.

According to that email, ICE was now "developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations."

Until that policy is issued, the SEVIS records for Zheng and similarly situated plaintiffs will remain active or will be restored, the email said.

The email said ICE maintains the authority to terminate students' SEVIS records for other reasons, including if they engage in other unlawful activity that would render them deportable.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a statement said the agency, which oversees ICE, did not reverse course on visa revocations but restored SEVIS access "for people who had not had their visa revoked," according to the Reuters report.

Saylor said that given that the reactivation of the SEVIS records for the students would take some time, he would extend a temporary restraining order he previously issued barring immigration officials from arresting or deporting her.

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