By Moriah Balingit, Associated Press
Washington (AP) – The US government has started to give up again to repression against international students, to spell how it targeted thousands of people and to exhibit the ground to end their legal status.
The new details have emerged in proceedings brought by some of the students who have suddenly canceled their status in recent weeks with few explanations.
During the last month, foreign students in the United States were shaken to learn that their files had been deleted from a student database maintained by immigration and customs application. Some have hidden for fear of being collected by the immigration authorities or abandoned their studies to go home.
Friday, after having set up judicial challenges, federal officials declared that the government restored the legal status of international students while it developed a framework to guide future resistance. In a legal file on Monday, he shared the new policy: a document published during the weekend with advice on a range of reasons why the status of students can be canceled, including the revocation of the visas they have used to enter the United States
Brad Banias, an immigration lawyer representing a student whose status has been terminated, said that the new guidelines considerably expand the authority of the ICE beyond the previous policy, which did not count the visa as a reason for loss of legal status.
“It just gave them carte blanche so that the State Department reveals a visa, then expel these students even if they did nothing wrong,” said Banias.
Many students who had visas revoked or lost their legal status said they had only minor offenses in their file, including the conduct of offenses. Some did not know why they were targeted.
Government lawyers provided explanations at an audience on Tuesday in the case of Banias’s client, Akshar Patel, an international student studying information systems in Texas. Patel status was dismissed – then reinstated – this month, and he seeks a preliminary court decision to prevent him from being expelled.
In the judicial files and at the hearing, officials of the Ministry of Internal Security said they had directed the names of student visa holders through the National Crime Information Center, a database led by the FBI which contains information trains related to crimes. It includes the names of the suspects, missing people and people who have been arrested, even if they have never been charged with a crime or if accusations have been abandoned.
In total, around 6,400 students were identified in the search of the database, US District Judge Ana Reyes said on Tuesday. One of the students was a patel, who had been arrested and accused of imprudent driving in 2018. The accusation was finally abandoned – information also in the NCIC.
Patel appears in a spreadsheet with 734 students whose names appeared at the NCIC. This calculation sheet was sent to an internal security manager, who, within 24 hours of receipt, replied: “Please end everyone in Sevis.” It is a different database listing foreigners who have legal status as a student in the United States
Reyes said that the short time suggested that no one had examined the files individually to find out why students’ names came to the NCIC.
“All this could have been avoided if someone had taken a beat,” said Reyes, who was appointed by President Joe Biden. She said that the government had demonstrated “a total lack of concern for those who have entered this country”.
When colleges discovered that students no longer had legal status, it caused chaos and confusion. In the past, according to college officials, legal statutes have generally been updated after the colleges told government that students no longer studying school. In some cases, the colleges told students to stop working or take courses and warn them that they could be expelled.
However, government lawyers said that the change in the database did not mean that students really lost legal status, even if some students were labeled “non-compliance with the status”. Instead, lawyers said it was intended to be a “red investigation flag”.
“Mr. Patel is legally present in the United States,” said Andre Watson of the Ministry of Internal Security. “It is not subject to immediate detention or deletion.”
Reyes refused to issue a preliminary injunction and urged lawyers on both sides to reach a regulation to ensure that the Patel could stay in the United States
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Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
