Court transcript reveals methods behind recent visa revocations for international students

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — At the beginning of April, international students across the United States had their citizenship status altered or revoked without warning. Now, a court hearing is revealing part of the process behind the status changes.

ABC4.com obtained a transcript of a hearing in Washington, D.C., on April 29, in which Judge Ana C. Reyes heard comments from counsel representing both the plaintiff — an international student whose SEVIS record was terminated — and the defendant, identified as Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The hearing lasted for just under an hour, and began with the judge asking questions about what was referred to as the “student criminal alien initiative” in an April 1 email from Department of Homeland Security officials.

The ‘student criminal alien initiative’

When asked about the initiative, a lawyer representing ICE said they “don’t know precisely what the scope of [the initiative] is.” The judge said that “there was no process” for the initiative.

“There was an email saying ‘here are the people,’ and an email saying ‘get rid of them all,'” the judge said. “So we’ll go through that process, but I want to know, what is the student criminal alien initiative?”

The attorney went on to explain that “student criminal alien initiative” was likely just being used to describe the process where ICE ran students through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), and passed on any “hits” to the Department of State, which later passed the information back to ICE.

Andre Watson with the Department of Homeland Security then spoke up about the initiative, clarifying that it is “centered at DHS headquarters” but is not an initiative that is in writing.

“It’s a name that was given by my staff to this specific effort to scrub records from SEVIS through NCIC to determine if there were positive criminality hits within NCIC,” Watson said, according to the transcript.

According to Watson, roughly 10 to 20 federal employees took between two to three weeks to run roughly 1.3 million names through the NCIC. Of those 1.3 million names, Watson said about 16,000 were in the NCIC, but that number went down to 13,900.

After additional validation against Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records returned just over 6,400 names, and after checking with the State Department, a list of about roughly 3,000 people was returned to DHS.

The judge asked Watson if there was any individualized review of the records before records were terminated in SEVIS, to which Watson said that “each record was scrutinized based on the criminal history.”

The plaintiff’s lawyer later said that the student in this case was “lawfully present” in the U.S. at the time his SEVIS record was terminated. He was on track to graduate within a few weeks, and was able to do so after the judge granted a temporary restraining order.

Judge Reyes said there was “zero due process” and an “utter lack of concern for human individuals” during the recent actions from ICE. Reyes gave the attorney for ICE a week to return specific language to keep the plaintiff in the country — but clarified that language would apply only in this specific case.

“He really does not want me to issue a ruling in this case,” the judge said, referring to the attorney for ICE.

Why are international students’ visas being revoked?

During any school year, an international student’s visa may be revoked if they get caught breaking the law or disobeying certain policies.

Recently, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said international students may be targeted for their suspected involvement in pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses or if they are connected to “potential criminal activity,” the Associated Press reports.

While international students’ Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records being terminated or their visas being revoked is not new, the University of Utah has recently said the practice is being approached differently than in the past.

“What is different currently is that records are being terminated in SEVIS sometimes without notice to the university and/or the student,” U of U said in a statement after several students’ records were terminated.

According to U of U, some of the reasons students were given for their visas being revoked included a criminal record check or “failure to maintain nonimmigrant status.” That was the reason given to the plaintiff in the April 29 hearing.

What is a student visa?

In the United States, international students can obtain an F-1 visa or a J-1 visa, and both have different restrictions and requirements. Another option is an M-1 visa for vocational students.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services (USCIS), students on an F-1 or M-1 visa must be enrolled full-time in an “academic” educational, language-training, or vocational program at an approved institution.

Students on an F-1 or M-1 visa must be proficient in English — or be in courses that lead them to English proficiency — in addition to having enough money to support themselves during their studies. There are certain work restrictions for students on these visas as well.

A J-1 visa classifies someone as an “exchange visitor,” according to USCIS. This classification is authorized for people who are participating in approved programs designed for teaching, researching, training, demonstrating special skills, and more.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that Form I-20 is “critically important to nonimmigrant students.” This form is issued to nonimmigrant students after they are accepted into their educational program. The form can only be issued to the student by the institution.

What’s next for international students?

Some Utah schools are reminding their international students and scholars to remain in good standing to preserve their status. U of U has advised its students to keep their immigration documents “valid and readily accessible.”

The University of Utah also directed international students toward some national organizations that can offer information and guidance, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Immigration Legal Resource Center, National Immigration Law Center, and the Immigration Advocates Network.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.