Foreign students win reprieve after 'a couple of weeks of terror and fear and turmoil'

The department reversed course on Friday, seemingly clearing the way for his return.

Justice Department lawyers told judges in Washington, Rochester and elsewhere that immigration officials would restore permission for thousands of international students like Manjunatha – a University at Buffalo graduate in a post-degree program – to legally study at universities and work in training programs in the United States.

“They’re very relieved that it seems to be over and they’re being reinstated, but I think they’re also very traumatized by what’s happened,” said New York immigration lawyer Paul J. O’Dwyer.

Even with the reprieve, a degree of anxiety and uncertainty remains for the two UB students and three Rochester Institute of Technology students who sued in federal court when their academic careers were thrown into turmoil earlier this month.

Manjunatha, who graduated in 2023 from UB with a master’s degree in financial mathematics, had maintained his legal status in this country by working for Citibank in a post-degree training program. He sued in U.S. District Court in Buffalo after his online student-visa record was terminated earlier this month from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a federal student database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

An active record on SEVIS serves as proof of a student’s legal status to remain in the country.

“Kiran’s SEVIS has not been reinstated at this time, but we expect that to occur,” said Jesse Bless, his lawyer. “We also hope that the State Department will facilitate his swift return.”

UB graduate's lawsuit ties revoked student visa to a traffic stop in 2021

Federal lawsuits followed by UB and RIT students from China, India and Bangladesh – all of whom had some brush with the law in the United States, from alcohol-related arrests to driving with suspended or invalid driver’s licenses.

They will now wait for the government to unveil its new policy for dealing with foreign students who have had some contact with law enforcement here.

The government’s reversal came after federal judges across the country ruled favorably for students, with some ordering the government to restore students’ records in SEVIS. That did not happen here, although Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford in Rochester entered a partial restraining order prohibiting the government from removing the RIT students from the United States or the court’s jurisdiction.

During a court proceeding last week, Wolford said she reviewed many similar cases across the nation and could not find a district court that found the termination of the student statuses lawful.

“What the government did seems to have been very sloppy, and seems to have been with no recognition of what the legal requirements were to revoke the student status to be here in the United States,” Wolford said.

‘Terror and fear’

O’Dwyer, the New York immigration lawyer who represents a post-doctorate UB student, sought an emergency temporary restraining order during an hourlong oral argument Friday morning before U.S. District Judge Meredith A. Vacca in Rochester.

Two hours after the court proceeding ended, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Khalil informed Vacca by letter that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had taken a new position and was reinstating all of the students whose status had been terminated, at least for now.

“Everybody’s very relieved,” O’Dwyer told The Buffalo News after learning of the government’s reversal. “But they’re also very angry they’ve had to go through a couple of weeks of terror and fear and turmoil, not knowing what was going to happen.”

Some students still may not know what will happen, especially for those who lost jobs or left the country after their visas were revoked.

Both UB students had their visas revoked. Manjunatha needs a new one to return to the United States.

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said all visa revocations are still in effect, according to the Washington Post. “We have not reversed course on a single visa revocation. What we did is restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked,” she said.

Meanwhile, some students elsewhere had their SEVIS status restored Friday even though their visas were revoked.

O’Dwyer’s client, who was identified in the lawsuit only by his initials, P.V., is still afraid to leave his apartment.

O’Dwyer told Vacca he was willing to put on hold his request for a temporary restraining order seeking reinstatement of SEVIS and the visa for the student, given that request will likely be moot within a few days if Homeland Security does what it said it would.

But O’Dwyer still wants Vacca to issue an order restraining the government from arresting and detaining P.V. or transferring him out of the court’s jurisdiction.

He is still at risk of arrest and detention, “and as he has stated to me again this afternoon, (he) has been and continues to be fearful of even leaving his apartment while his status remains unresolved,” O’Dwyer told the judge.

Lawsuits prompted change

Since Jan. 20, the SEVIS records for some 4,700 international students had been terminated, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

UB previously confirmed that 13 of its students had their records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System “unexpectedly terminated” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program.

The terminations prompted more than 100 lawsuits across the country, with judges in at least half of the cases issuing restraining orders against the Trump administration while others considered doing so.

“None of these kids wanted to sue,” Bless told The News.

But they were terrified, and some parents spent their entire life savings sending their children to these colleges, he said. Bless called the termination of Manjunatha’s SEVIS status unlawful.

“My position has been validated across the country, and every court that has looked at it said, ‘this isn’t right,’ “ Bless told The News.

The wave of lawsuits led to the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to restore the SEVIS records and pause before taking further actions against students, lawyers said.

“I think without these lawsuits, they would never have changed their position,” O’Dwyer told The News.

Many of the international students have been in the United States for years, meeting academic goal posts and keeping up their grades to remain, he said.

“They’ve worked very hard to do that, and a lot of them have ... very good education-to-career pathways that they’ve been pursuing,” he said. “And then suddenly all of that was in jeopardy.”

Depending on a visa

Friday’s sudden shift to restore records in the federal database that shows proof of students’ legal status does not mean the government will abandon its effort altogether.

But for now, there’s a pause.

Khalil’s letter to the federal judge in Rochester said “ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations.” Until that policy is put in place, thousands of students in the U.S. on F-1 student visas but whose online records were terminated will have them restored.

“ICE still maintains the authority to terminate a SEVIS record for other reasons, such as if a student fails to maintain his or her nonimmigrant status after the record is reactivated or engages in other unlawful activity that would render him or her removable from the U.S.,” according to Khalil’s letter.

Each of the five students in Western New York had some contact with law enforcement before their legal status was canceled.

Manjunatha was cited for driving with an invalid license.

The other UB student, P.V., a 31-year-old from India, entered the United States in 2016 and been in a post-degree program after earning a master’s degree and doctorate in electrochemistry. He had been working on a Department of Defense-funded project in association with Walter Reed Hospital on stimulating electrochemical changes around implant and prosthetic devices to prevent and treat bacterial infections. He pleaded guilty to committing two alcohol-related driving offenses in the U.S. when he was 24 years old.

“I have no family in the U.S., and my family in India cannot support me,” he said in a court filing. “I depend on my F-1 status for both legal status in the U.S. as well as for income. Without it, I have no way to support myself.”