Trump Administration Terminated Thousands of F-1 SEVIS Records for International Students but Many Records Now Restored

Trump Administration Terminates F-1 SEVIS Records for Thousands of International Students; Many Records Now Restored; ICE then issues amended Termination Guidelines

In early April, the Trump Administration terminated the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (“SEVIS”) records of numerous F-1 international students without prior notification to the students or their universities. Universities only found out about the terminations upon logging into their SEVIS portals, at which point they notified their students of the terminations. Universities and students received insufficient or no information explaining why the SEVIS records were terminated. These terminations left the students without valid immigration status, putting them at risk of detention and deportation.

In response, many affected students filed individual and class action lawsuits against the Trump Administration for failure to follow established administrative procedures and for violating constitutional due process rights. Judges across the US ordered the Trump Administration to restore the students’ statuses, which the Trump Administration began complying with on April 25th.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Carilli released the following statement regarding the terminations: “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. ICE maintains the authority to terminate a SEVIS record for other reasons, such as if the plaintiff 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 United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

ICE reactivated terminated SEVIS records. The terminations were revoked by ICE, in part, because of constitutional violations of the Due Process Clause and because of ICE’s failure to follow the APA (Administrative Procedures Act).

On Monday, 4/28/25, ICE issued a SEVIS notice to all Government & School persons using SEVIS: “Broadcast Message: SEVIS Notice – Policy Regarding Termination of Records”. Apparently, by making the announcement of the new Termination Guidelines,  ICE is seeking to correct the constitutional and statutory deficiencies which had led to the issuance of some 40 TROs (Temporary Restraining Orders) by the Federal Courts.

Litigation will no doubt continue on this front.