Federal judge bars government from revoking international students' legal status

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Reporter : Li Yan / Editor : Lin Yan / https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/25/5/22/n14515849.htm / Image : On 22 May 2025, a federal judge in California issued a nationwide order prohibiting the Trump administration from revoking the legal status of foreign students studying and working in the United States. Pictured is the gate of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 1 September 2024. (Learner Liu/The Epoch Times)

A federal judge in California has issued a nationwide order on Thursday (22 May 2025) prohibiting the Trump administration from revoking the legal status of foreign students studying and working in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California issued a nationwide injunction on Thursday that prohibits the Trump administration from revoking the legal status of international students in the United States without conducting an individual review and complying with federal procedures.

According to court documents, earlier this year, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cross-checked the data of approximately 1.3 million student visa holders across the United States with criminal databases under a program called the Student Criminal Alien Initiative, identifying 6,400 people with a history of contact with police. The list was then handed over to the State Department, which decided whether to revoke their visas.

Once a visa is revoked, ICE will delete their record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which is equivalent to terminating their legal status in the United States and may lead to their detention or deportation.

The court pointed out that although some students had contact with the police, most had not been charged or convicted, and the reasons noted in SEVIS were mostly "failure to maintain status" or "other", indicating that the processing procedures may be too brief.

Judge White believed that the government's actions lacked sufficient basis and transparent procedures, and may violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and constitutional due process protections. He pointed out that many students lost their legal status without prior notice, and that this "termination first, remediation later" approach was not in line with the rule of law.

Although the government later restored some SEVIS records, the court said that the database still retains the records that had been cancelled, which may affect students' future visa applications and status changes. In order to maintain stability, the court has a responsibility to intervene.

The court order includes:

Prohibits the government from detaining, deporting, or imposing any adverse legal consequences on students based on SEVIS termination records;

Prohibits the government from revoking restored SEVIS records without court approval;

This ban applies to all affected students. The court stressed that the ruling did not deny the government's oversight of the immigration system.

Judge White's ruling in this case does not involve school institutions. On the same day, the Trump administration notified Harvard University that it would revoke its eligibility to participate in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), a move that could result in the school no longer being able to recruit international students.