The Trump administration is reversing its termination of legal status for international students across the country, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
As of a campus wide email on Friday, five individuals at the University of Maryland are impacted by revoked visas. Seven people at this university had their legal status revoked in April, The Diamondback reported on April 17. The number continues to fluctuate, university administrators wrote.
The Justice Department announced the reversal in court after international students across the U.S. filed lawsuits against the administration for the termination of visas, the Associated Press reported.
The records in a federal student database managed by U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement have been terminated in recent weeks, the Associated Press reported. Judges across the country have issued orders temporarily restoring the records, according to the news agency.
An assistant Homeland Security secretary said ICE did not reverse course on any visa revocations, but did revert access to the federal database tracking student visas, the Associated Press reported.
[Here’s what to know about international student visas]
Nearly 5,000 students at this university have academic-based visas, this university confirmed April 17.
The University System of Maryland and more than 80 other higher education institutions backed a lawsuit in mid-April against the Trump administration’s crackdown on student visas.
“We are disheartened that international individuals at institutions nationwide, including our own at UMD, have experienced the unexpected termination of their lawful status in the U.S.,” university president Darryll Pines and senior vice president and provost Jennifer King Rice wrote in the Friday email.
News editor Natalie Weger contributed to this report.
