SAN FRANCISCO, California: The US government is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the country after many filed court challenges against the Trump administration crackdown, federal officials said Friday.
The records in a federal student database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been terminated in recent weeks. Judges across the US had already issued orders temporarily restoring students’ records in dozens of lawsuits challenging the terminations.
More than 1,200 students nationwide suddenly lost their legal status or had visas revoked, leaving them at risk for deportation. Many said they had only minor infractions on their record or did not know why they were targeted. Some left the country while others have gone into hiding or stopped going to class.
Government says it will restore student status
Word of the policy pivot came Friday from lawyers representing the government in several of the lawsuits.
A lawyer for the plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, Brian Green, provided The Associated Press with a copy of a statement a government lawyer emailed to him on the restoration of legal status for people whose records were recently terminated.
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.”
SEVIS is the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database that tracks international students’ compliance with their visa status. NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, a database of criminal justice information maintained by the FBI.
Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant Homeland Security secretary, said ICE had not reversed course on any visa revocations but did “restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked.”
Several colleges said Friday they noticed legal status already had been restored for some of their students, but uncertainty remained.
“It is still unclear whether ICE will restore status to everyone it has targeted and whether the State Department will help students whose visas were wrongly revoked,” said Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Legal fights may not be over
Green, who is involved in lawsuits on behalf of several dozen students, said his cases only sought restoration of the student status and that he would be withdrawing them as a result of the statement Friday from ICE.
But lawyers in the Oakland case are seeking a nationwide order from the court prohibiting the government from arresting or incarcerating students, transferring them to places outside their district or preventing them from continuing work or studies.
Pam Johann, a government lawyer, said it was premature to consider anything like that given that ICE was in the process of reactivating records and developing a policy. “We should take a pause while ICE is implementing this change that plaintiffs are seeking right now, on its own,” she said.
But US District Judge Jeffrey S. White asked her to humor the court.
“It seems like with this administration there’s a new world order every single day,” he said. “It’s like whack-a-mole.”
He ordered the government to clarify the new policy.
Visa revocations and student status terminations caused confusion
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department was revoking visas held by people acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges. But many students whose status was terminated said they did not fall under those categories.
A survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs research found that even the visa revocations for students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests are more unpopular than popular. About half of US adults oppose this policy, and only 3 in 10 are in support. Among college educated adults, 6 in 10 strongly oppose, compared with 4 in 10 who aren’t college graduates.
In lawsuits, students argued they were denied due process. Many were told that their status was terminated as a result of a criminal records check or that their visa had been revoked.
International students and their schools were caught off guard by the terminations of the students’ records. Many of the terminations were discovered when school officials were doing routine checks of the international student database.
Charles Kuck, who filed a case in Atlanta on behalf of 133 students across the country said ICE’s reversal can’t undo the distress and hardship they have faced in recent weeks.
“I’ve got kids who lost their jobs, who might not get them back,” he said. “I’ve got kids who lost school opportunities who might not get them back. We’ve got kids who missed finals, missed graduation. How do you get any of that stuff back?”
Jodie Ferise, a higher education attorney in Indiana, said some students at schools her law firm works with already left the country after receiving instructions to self-deport.
“This unprecedented treatment of student status had caused tremendous fear among international students,” Ferise said. “Some of them were too frightened to wait and hope for the administration to change course.”
Earlier this week, before the government’s reversal, Ferise said the situation could hurt international student enrollment.
“The world is watching, and we will lose students, not just by the technical revocation of their status, but by the message we’re sending that we don’t want them anyway and that it isn’t safe to even try to go to school here,” she said.
At least 1,220 students at 187 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked, their legal status terminated or both, since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records. The AP has been working to confirm reports of hundreds more students who are caught up in the crackdown.
ICE is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the US
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ICE is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the US
- More than 1,200 students nationwide suddenly lost their legal status or had visas revoked, leaving them at risk for deportation
- Judges across the US had issued orders temporarily restoring students’ records in dozens of lawsuits challenging the terminations
Bangladesh probe into Hasina-era abuses warns ‘impunity’ remains
The Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappearances is probing abuses during the rule of Hasina, whose government was accused of widespread human rights abuses.
That includes the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of political opponents and the unlawful abduction and disappearance of hundreds more.
The commission was established by interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, who is facing intense political pressure as parties jostle for power ahead of elections expected early next year.
Bangladesh has a long history of military coups and the army retains a powerful role.
“Enforced disappearances in Bangladesh were not isolated acts of wrongdoing, but the result of a politicized institutional machinery that condoned, normalized, and often rewarded such crimes,” the commission said, in a section of a report released by the interim government on Monday.
“Alarmingly, this culture of impunity continues even after the regime change on August 5, 2024.”
The commission has verified more than 250 cases of enforced disappearances spanning the 15 years that Hasina’s Awami League was in power.
Commission chief Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury said earlier this month that responsibility lay with individual officers, who were “involved in conducting enforced disappearances,” but not the armed forces as an institution.
Earlier this month, a joint statement by rights groups — including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — called on the security forces to “fully cooperate with the commission by guaranteeing unfettered and ongoing access to all detention centers... and providing free access to records regarding those seized or detained.”
Hasina,77, remains in self-imposed exile in India, where she fled after she was ousted last year.
She has defied orders to return to Dhaka to face charges amounting to crimes against humanity. Her trial in absentia continues.
Greenpeace joins protests against gala Bezos wedding in Venice
- Some locals see the celebration as the latest sign of the brash commodification of a beautiful but fragile city that has long been overrun with tourism while steadily depopulating
VENICE: Global environmental lobby Greenpeace added its voice on Monday to protests against this week’s celebrity wedding in Venice between American tech billionaire Jeff Bezos and journalist Laura Sanchez.
The event, expected to attract some 200 guests including US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as scores of stars from film, fashion and business, has been dubbed “the wedding of the century.”
But some locals see the celebration as the latest sign of the brash commodification of a beautiful but fragile city that has long been overrun with tourism while steadily depopulating.
Activists from Greenpeace Italy and UK group “Everyone hates Elon” (Musk) unfolded a giant banner in central St. Mark’s Square with a picture of Bezos laughing and a sign reading: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax.”
Local police arrived to talk to activists and check their identification documents, before they rolled up their banner.
“The problem is not the wedding, the problem is the system. We think that one big billionaire can’t rent a city for his pleasure,” Simona Abbate, one of the protesters, told Reuters.
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and regional governor Luca Zaia have defended the wedding, arguing that it will bring an economic windfall to local businesses, including the motor boats and gondolas that operate its myriad canals.
Zaia said the celebrations were expected to cost 20-30 million euros ($23-$34 million).
Bezos will also make sizable charity donations, including a million euros for Corila, an academic consortium that studies Venice’s lagoon ecosystem, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper and the ANSA news agency reported on Sunday.
Earlier this month, anti-Bezos banners were hung from St. Mark’s bell tower and from the famed Rialto bridge, while locals threatened peaceful blockades against the event, saying Venice needed public services and housing, not VIPs and over-tourism.
The exact dates and locations of the glitzy nuptials are being kept confidential, but celebrations are expected to play out over three days, most likely around June 26-28.
Beijing issues weather warning for hottest days of year
- An orange heat warning — the second-highest in a three-tier system — was issued on Monday as officials encouraged people to limit outdoor activity and drink more fluids to avoid heatstroke
BEIJING: Beijing residents sought shade and cooled off in canals on Monday as authorities issued the second-highest heat warning for the Chinese capital on one of its hottest days of the year so far.
China has endured a string of extreme summers in recent years, with heatwaves baking northern regions even as parts of the south have seen catastrophic rain and flooding.
Authorities in the city of 22 million people urged the public to take precautions, with temperatures expected to peak at around 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday.
“It’s been really hot lately, especially in the past few days,” intern Li Weijun told AFP on Monday afternoon.
The 22-year-old said he had stopped wearing formal clothes to work and delayed his daily exercise until after 10:00 p.m. to stay safe.
“I think it’s related to climate change, and maybe also to the damage done to nature,” he said.
An orange heat warning — the second-highest in a three-tier system — was issued on Monday as officials encouraged people to limit outdoor activity and drink more fluids to avoid heatstroke.
Construction workers should “shorten the amount of time consecutively spent at labor,” while elderly, sick or weakened individuals ought to “avoid excessive exertion,” according to the guidelines.
Zhang Chen, 28, said she carried an umbrella outdoors to prevent sunburn.
“I used to ride a bike, but once it gets this hot, I basically stop doing that,” the IT worker told AFP.
Despite the beating sun, legions of delivery drivers zipped through downtown areas at noon to bring sustenance to Beijing’s office workers.
A few lazed on the backs of their scooters in a shady spot, while elsewhere, people cooled off with ice creams or by taking a dip in the city’s canals.
Beijing is still a few degrees short of breaking its record for the hottest-ever June day, set at 41.1C in 2023.
Human greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change that causes longer, more frequent and more intense heatwaves.
China is the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, though it has pledged to bring its emissions to a peak by the end of this decade and to net zero by 2060.
The country has also emerged as a global leader in renewable energy in recent years as it seeks to pivot its massive economy away from highly polluting coal consumption.
In a shady spot near an office building, 42-year-old Lucy Lu spent her lunch break with friends, kicking a shuttlecock through the air — a traditional Chinese game known as “jianzi.”
“I was born and raised in Beijing, and summer here has always been like this,” she said.
“But I do think when the temperature goes over 40C, there should be some time off or work-from-home options to reduce the risk of heatstroke.”
UK police ban Palestine Action protest outside parliament
- The pro-Palestinian organization is among groups that have regularly targeted defense firms and other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza
LONDON: British police have banned campaign group Palestine Action from protesting outside parliament on Monday, a rare move that comes after two of its members broke into a military base last week and as the government considers banning the organization.
The group said in response that it had changed the location of its protest on Monday to Trafalgar Square, which lies just outside the police exclusion zone.
The pro-Palestinian organization is among groups that have regularly targeted defense firms and other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza.
British media have reported that the government is considering proscribing, or effectively banning, Palestine Action, as a terrorist organization, putting it on a par with Al-Qaeda or Daesh.
London’s Metropolitan Police said late on Sunday that it would impose an exclusion zone for a protest planned by Palestine Action outside the Houses of Parliament — a popular location for protests in support of a range of causes.
“The right to protest is essential and we will always defend it, but actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as legitimate protest,” Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said.
“We have laid out to Government the operational basis on which to consider proscribing this group.”
Palestine Action’s members are alleged to have caused millions of pounds of criminal damage, assaulted a police officer with a sledgehammer and, in the incident last week, damaged two military aircraft, Rowley added.
Italy against suspending EU-Israel accord, foreign minister says
ROME: Italy is against a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement over alleged human rights violations in Gaza, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday.
“Our position is different from that of Spain,” Tajani said on the sidelines of a meeting with EU colleagues in Brussels, referring to Spain’s support for a suspension of the deal.
Tajani said it was important to keep relations open with Israel, saying that this had facilitated the evacuation of some civilians out of Gaza.
