Universities Told Students to Leave the Country. ICE Just Said They Didn’t Actually Have To.

The Department of Homeland Shield declared this week in a Michigan court that the agency does not have the authority to terminate students immigration statuses by terminating their records in the Novice Exchange and Visitor Information System Known as SEVIS the database allows both universities and leadership to track information about international students on visas in U S Homeland Measure s changes to SEVIS the Trump administration revealed have no bearing on a trainee s lawful nonimmigrant status Terminating a record in SEVIS does not terminate an individual s nonimmigrant status in the United States commented Andre Watson assistant director of the national safeguard division for Homeland Assurance Investigations in the filing Watson added that existing laws and regulations do not provide the DHS-run Trainee Exchange and Visitor Effort the authority to terminate nonimmigrant status by terminating a SEVIS record This will be news to various hundreds of students who have had their SEVIS records terminated by DHS in new weeks and were then informed by their schools or the regime that they have thus lost their immigration status and must this instant leave the country Under pressure from ICE schools have been advising students they are out of status after SEVIS record termination and in a great number of cases disenrolling them as a effect revealed Nathan Yaffe an attorney representing international students facing deportation in other cases Now ICE has submitted sworn declarations that SEVIS record termination has no legal effect on the trainee whatsoever Disenrolling students was already a blatant capitulation and now it is a wholly inexcusable one Based on school functionaries checking their SEVIS records hundreds of students have been led to believe that they had lost their aspirant immigration status because a terminated record in the database is broadly taken to mean a trainee has fallen out of status The DHS s latest proposes to the contrary in court are sure to only sow further confusion but they are strong grounds Yaffe stated for schools to right away stop disenrolling students assumed to be out of status due to SEVIS record checks Any school that continues to disenroll and refuses to re-enroll students is voluntarily punishing students to align itself with the Trump administration s agenda Yaffe declared Disenrolling students was already a blatant capitulation and now it is a wholly inexcusable one What Schools Reported Students The DHS declaration was filed in response to a lawsuit brought by four Michigan students who are suing the Trump administration over the disclosed loss of their F- pupil statuses In response the leadership argued that the event should be thrown out since DHS did not remove the students statuses when it terminated their SEVIS records According to Inside Higher Ed lawsuits from at least students have challenged the Trump administration over visa revocations and deportation threats A number of the suits have challenged DHS s authority to summarily change students statuses on SEVIS It was only for the first time in the Michigan circumstance however that the regime declared that its SEVIS interventions had no bearing on a learner s status The admission was an apparent effort by the establishment to dodge legal challenges The students are suing to have their legal aspirant immigration status restored and the governing body is suggesting that their SEVIS terminations never changed the students statuses so the agency cannot be sued for its actions Communications from administration agencies and school administrations however have up until this point taken a SEVIS termination to mean that a novice s status is terminated too In an email sent by a school official at the University of Michigan to one of the Michigan plaintiffs for example the participant was advised In our daily review of SEVIS we learned that your SEVIS record was terminated by a Department of Homeland Safety DHS official The school official continued We do not have any additional information but this termination means you no longer hold valid F- status within the United States You will need to cease any employment promptly Since this termination does not carry a grace period we must recommend you make plans to exit the United States without delay The leadership s defense in court however claimed the direct opposite noting in a filing There are no legal consequences to the termination of a SEVIS record The University of Michigan and Wayne State University the two schools attended by plaintiffs in the Michigan lawsuit did not respond to The Intercept s request for comment nor did DHS ICE and the Department of Justice which represents the administration in court Read Our Complete Coverage The War on Immigrants A participant plaintiff in another similar event filed in California received an email directly from the State Department informing them that their apprentice visa had been revoked The email fails to distinguish in any meaningful way between visa status and legal immigration status which are not the same thing In one paragraph the State Department tells the apprentice that their visa has been revoked under Section i of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act The email later notes Remaining in the United States without a lawful immigration status can upshot in fines detention and or deportation without informing the aspirant that they may very well still have lawful immigration status Given the gravity of this situation individuals whose visa was revoked may wish to demonstrate their intent to depart the United States using the CBP Home App the State Department email recounted the scholar The State Department declined to comment citing pending act Related Nobel Winner Joseph Stiglitz Denounces Columbia s Apparent Capitulation to Trump Ranjani Srinivasan a Ph D candidate at Columbia University fled to Canada in March after being targeted by ICE After DHS terminated her SEVIS status Srinivasan wrote in a message that Columbia arbitrarily de-enrolled her ending her legal status worker status and housing She blamed ICE threats and Columbia complicity for her decision to flee The Homeland Precaution website which offers official guidance on international trainee rules and regulations suggests that a terminated record indicates that the trainee s legal status has been terminated too The site notes that a terminated record in SEVIS means that a trainee loses all on- and or off-campus employment authorization cannot re-enter the United States on the terminated SEVIS record and that ICE agents may investigate to confirm the departure of the apprentice DHS also says that a terminated record could indicate that the nonimmigrant no longer maintains their legal status but that it is designated school functionaries rather than ICE and other DHS agents who mostly terminate these records That Clearly Is BS The State Department has been removing learner visas en masse Over pupil visas have been revoked almost entirely from nonwhite students since President Donald Trump communicated plans to target international students particularly those who have expressed advocacy for Palestinian freedom The removal of a candidate visa however is not the same as and does not entail the removal of legal nonimmigrant status in the U S as a attendee A visa is required for an international novice to legally enter the country to research here After entering however the visa does not affect the candidate s immigration status A aspirant with an expired or revoked visa can remain in legal nonimmigrant learner status while not leaving the country a university has no legal reason to disenroll that scholar or prevent their continued evaluation in the U S The DHS declaration in Michigan went further in making the distinction between having a visa revoked and being eligible for deportation Prudential visa revocation absent other factors does not make an individual amendable to removal wrote Watson the HSI official That is the revocation of a scholar visa is not in and of itself necessarily grounds for a trainee to be deported Yet schools have been reacting to SEVIS terminations not visa revocations when they have disenrolled students or advised students to this instant leave the country This does not mean that the students right now targeted by Trump s administration are safe A pupil in legal immigration status with a revoked visa is at substantial hazard should ICE seek to pursue deportation proceedings against them The agency would have to send the novice a notice to appear before an immigration judge and there would be a hearing about the candidate s deportability at which the apprentice could challenge their visa revocation Related Trump Appears to Be Targeting Muslim and Non-White Students for Deportation The process can be frightening for students as the cases of detained legal permanent residents like Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi and visa holders like R meysa zt rk make clear The Trump administration has shown little compunction about taking the next step toward making individual students deportable attempting to carry out the mass removal of students for minor legal violations as well as for entirely legal political speech under spurious foreign protocol grounds and bunk charges of antisemitism In trying to stave off litigation DHS has been clear in other cases that students who have had their visas revoked and SEVIS records terminated have not fallen out of legal status The issue Plaintiffs seek to avoid is the real issue before this court the State Department revoked Plaintiffs visa the leadership argued in another situation filed by students in Georgia but those actions are un reviewable here Do you realize that this is Kafkaesque The administration is claiming that the students have directed their legal challenge at the wrong governing body agency but that they also cannot sue the State Department because the section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is deploying to summarily remove visas expressly precludes visa revocations from judicial review According to the Trump administration the students could only challenge Rubio s wide and reckless discretion to revoke their visas in removal proceedings if the revocation is the sole basis for removal Federal judges hearing students cases around the country have so far not been impressed with the regime s arguments At least five federal courts have issued temporary restraining orders on deportation orders linked to SEVIS terminations On Wednesday District Court Judge Ana Reyes in Washington D C specifically ordered DHS s Watson to testify in court over the maintains in his declaration which was also submitted by the ruling body in the situation filed by students there I ve got two experienced immigration lawyers on behalf of a client who is months away from graduation who has done nothing wrong who has been terminated from a system that you all keep telling me has no effect on his immigration status although that clearly is BS Reyes advised the executive And now his two very experienced lawyers can t even tell him whether or not he s here legally because the Court can t tell him whether or not he s here legally because the authorities s counsel can t tell him if he s here legally The judge announced Do you realize that this is Kafkaesque Update April p m ETThis story has been updated to note that after publication the State Department declined to comment The post Universities Advised Students to Leave the Country ICE Just Mentioned They Didn t Definitely Have To appeared first on The Intercept