Houston Student Visas Are Being Reinstated, Immigration Attorney Says

Another day, another Trump policy walked back, causing chaos and confusion. More than a dozen Houston international students whose visa status was removed from a Department of Homeland Security database this month could already be reinstated and should plan to go to class on Monday morning, Houston-based immigration attorney Charles Foster said.

Foster’s statement was in response to Justice Department officials announcing Friday that the federal government won’t revoke any additional student visas until a new system for reviewing immigration status is initiated. A breaking story in the New York Times on Friday declared that the Trump administration “abruptly walked back its cancellation of more than 1,500 student visas held by international students, announcing a dramatic shift by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a court hearing in Washington.”

Make no mistake. This isn’t a victory, Foster said: “They should never have done this in the first place.”

About 300 Texas students were targeted, including at least 13 at the University of Houston and five at Rice University. A few may have already left the country after receiving notification they’d been dropped from the Student and Exchange Visitor System, but the “vast majority” were planning to stay and litigate, Foster said. When asked what he thinks about the media reports that Trump was walking back his policy, Foster didn’t mince words.

“I think it’s overly generous for the New York Times to call it a policy. It’s really a mess, is what it is,” he said. “Students are already being reinstated. It appears that’s going on across the board.”

What about those who have already skipped town?

“I told several people not to leave,” Foster said. “Certain individuals had a rationale for doing so. They were going to get their degree and they wanted to go home anyway. A few people, just based on their knowledge that the government is omnipresent and can do anything, were under a lot of psychological pressure to leave.”

There could be a costly and cumbersome road ahead for those who left immediately, he added.

“Their visa was canceled so they’re going to have to get a new one issued,” he said. “It would have been better for them to stay here. I think this revocation of student status and the uncertainty have hurt our educational system. I think there’s a significant number who would have wanted to study in the U.S. in the past who are not going to apply or are going to notify the school that they’re withdrawing their application.”

Numerous lawsuits were filed by students across the country who suddenly lost the right to further their education, the New York Times reported.

“I think the reason Immigration is [offering a reprieve] is that they’ve lost every case,” Foster said. “One court after the other is honoring reinstatement.”

Foster told the Houston Press previously that it appeared the students were flagged through an artificial intelligence program that identified people who had a minor interaction with law enforcement such as a speeding ticket. It’s good news that the government is reinstating the unfairly targeted students and refining its database, the attorney said.

“That makes sense. Students who fail to maintain their status or flunk out, there are a variety of reasons why students may lose eligibility,” he said. “The problem was that, I think through some sort of AI program, they simply revoked the status of large numbers of students for no reason at all. There was no basis in the law that would have justified revocation. I think it was just a massive screw-up.”