Trump administration drops effort to revoke student visas, attorneys say, restoring study permission in Philly and elsewhere

Government lawyers say the Trump administration is reversing its revocation of visas for international college students, restoring the ability of students at several Philadelphia-area colleges to continue their studies.

It comes as students in the region and across the United States have filed legal challenges to visa terminations at more than 280 colleges.

The ACLU of New Jersey filed a federal lawsuit this week on behalf of six international students at Rutgers University who had their status effectively terminated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Last week, two students at Gannon University in Erie, Pa., won a temporary restraining order that blocked the government from rescinding their visas.

“This is certainly good news,” said Philadelphia immigration attorney Christopher Casazza, of the firm Palladino, Isbell & Casazza LLC, who represents the Gannon students. “But I’m concerned this is ICE temporarily retreating and not a complete victory for the students. It seems ICE is trying to regroup and figure out another way to come after these students.”

ICE officials did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The agency told an attorney involved in a visa case that it was developing a policy around revocations, indicating that the reversal may not be permanent.

More than 1,800 international students have had their permission to study here revoked in the past several weeks, according to a tracker maintained by Insider Higher Ed. More than a million students from around the globe attend American colleges and universities, with half coming from China and India.

A spokesperson for Temple University, where at least five students lost their ability to study in the United States, said on Friday that some records now have been reactivated. Officials were continuing to monitor the situation, but said they would have no further comment given the personal nature of the matter.

A University of Pennsylvania spokesperson said Friday that three of seven people affiliated with the school have had their accounts restored in SEVIS, the database that tracks international students’ compliance with their visa status.

The university had no additional comment.

Some students who had visas revoked have been accused by the Trump administration of taking part in pro-Palestinian protests, though others appear not to have engaged in political activity. In many cases the reason for revocation is unknown.

In January, Trump issued an executive order to fight what his administration called “the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and streets” that followed the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

That has set off a contentious legal and ethical debate, with the administration claiming that some of the students support the Hamas terrorist organization, while student-advocates say the president has trampled constitutional rights to free speech and assembly.

This week more than 60 Philadelphia-area rabbis and cantors signed a letter condemning the Trump administration’s treatment of international students, saying its targeting of pro-Palestinian demonstrators does not make Jewish students safer.

That letter followed similar statements issued in recent weeks by Jewish groups in Michigan, New Mexico, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Illinois, and North Carolina.

“There is a growing resistance to these unconstitutional efforts,” said Rabbi David Teutsch, a professor emeritus and former president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, who authored the letter.

The revocations encompass more than 40 students and affiliated scholars in Pennsylvania, including at least 13 at Pennsylvania State University, seven at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, seven at Penn, six at Gannon, five at Temple University, and three at the University of Pittsburgh.

Some students at Millersville University lost their visas. So did a Saudi Arabian student at La Roche University in McCandless, near Pittsburgh, who sued ICE and the Department of Homeland Security this week, alleging they illegally terminated his status, Trib Live reported.

Officials at Lehigh University said “a few” students had their visas revoked but did not provide a specific number.

In New Jersey, at least 24 students have lost their visas, including 12 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and eight at Rowan University in Glassboro. Four international students at Montclair State University in Montclair had their visas rescinded, the student newspaper reported.

The Associated Press reported Friday that a lawyer for the government read a statement in federal court in Oakland that said ICE was manually restoring the students’ status. A similar statement was read by a government attorney in a separate case in Washington on Friday, said lawyer Brian Green, who represents the plaintiff in that case.

Green provided the Associated Press with a copy of the statement that the government lawyer emailed to him.

It says: “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 this case (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 NCIC finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination.”

Green said the government lawyer said it would apply to all students in the same situation, not just those who had filed lawsuits.

SEVIS stands for Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, and NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, maintained by the FBI.

At Penn State, Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna told the Centre Daily Times that his office knows of 12 students whose visas were revoked due to retail theft. Each was placed in a diversionary program and not convicted of any crimes.

A 13th person had a visa revocation after being charged with driving under the influence, and that person participated in a program for first offenders, Cantorna said.

None had any prior criminal convictions, he told the newspaper, and most have already returned to their home countries.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.