Trump admin restores visa registration for thousands of foreign students

The Trump administration has restored student visa registrations for thousands of foreign students studying in the US who had minor or dismissed legal infractions, according to local media.

The US Justice Department announced on Friday the reversal in federal court after weeks of legal scrutiny and over 100 lawsuits filed across at least 23 states over the controversial policy, Politico reported.

Judges in more than 50 cases issued temporary orders halting the terminations, which they called arbitrary and illegal.

The affected students, some of them close to graduation, were blocked from attending classes or conducting research, sparking fears of losing legal status or facing deportation.

According to Inside Higher Ed, which tracks student visa terminations, as of April 24 more than 280 colleges and universities have reported that over 1,800 international students and recent graduates have had their legal status changed by the State Department.

It remains unclear if the department will reverse its recent wave of visa cancellations targeting similar students.​​​​​​​

The Trump administration's aggressive policy on revoking student visas, often without notice, and pushing for deportation has raised concerns about free speech rights as well as discouraging foreign students from seeking education in the US.

Crackdown on pro-Palestine activism

The Trump administration started to crack down on students over pro-Palestine protests on US campuses and other issues, starting with Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student, whom the administration admitted on Thursday to have arrested without a warrant. At the time, Trump hailed his arrest and claimed it was the first of many.

A few days after Khalil's arrest, Trump's claim came due after another pro-Palestine student, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian researcher at Georgetown University, was arrested. His attorney said he was arrested because of the Palestinian identity of his wife.

After the arrest of Suri, authorities went after another pro-Palestine student, Momodou Taal, asking him to turn himself in.

On March 25, Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student, said she sued the Trump administration to stop her deportation from the US over her participation in a pro-Palestine protest last Spring.

Also on March 25, Rumeysa Ozturk, who is a Tufts University PhD student, was kidnapped in broad daylight by US authorities over criticising Israel's carnage in Gaza.

Last week, authorities arrested Mohsen Mahdwai, a pro-Palestine activist and also a Columbia student, during his citizenship interview.

Other students, like Leqaa Kordia, Ranjani Srinivasan, and Alireza Doroudi have either been detained or self-deported.

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Source: TRT