Student Visas Restored After Court Order; Indians Were Half Of Affected Cases

India-West News Desk

ATLANTA, GA – Student visas have been reinstated following an April 18 court order temporarily halting the Trump administration’s move to strip legal status from 133 international students, many of whom were Indian nationals.

The ruling by Judge Victoria M. Calvert of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from continuing deportation proceedings against these students.

According to data from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Indian students were the one mostly affected. Of 327 visa revocation cases reviewed by AILA, nearly 50% involved Indian nationals.

Most of these students were on F-1 visas, with many participating in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program—a temporary employment authorization pathway often used by graduates in STEM fields as a stepping stone to H-1B work visas. Loss of OPT status would mean they can’t pursue employment in the US.

In total, ICE has terminated 4,736 Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records since January 20, according to AILA. While the majority of revocations were attributed to minor legal infractions—such as traffic citations, university policy violations, or even being listed as victims in domestic violence cases—only two of the 327 reviewed cases were explicitly tied to political activism.

The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Georgia described the revocations as an attempt to “coerce students, including each Plaintiff, into abandoning their studies and ‘self-deporting’,” despite having committed no visa violations. Among the plaintiffs are students on the verge of graduation or participating in legal, authorized employment. In some cases, such as one involving “Jane Doe #12,” students had no criminal or disciplinary records whatsoever.

The lawsuit challenged what it called a politically motivated crackdown on international students. “The Constitution protects everyone on American soil,” said Akiva Freidlin, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Georgia. “The Trump administration cannot ignore due process to unjustifiably threaten students with the loss of immigration status, and arrest and deportation.”

Some students reportedly had their SEVIS records terminated without any warning, bypassing the traditional protocol where schools handle such updates. (Courtesy: https://indiawest.com/)