The Trump administration restored the immigration statuses for “some” members of the NYU community who were affected by its onslaught of visa revocations after facing extensive scrutiny from federal courts, a university administrator told WSN.
Josh Taylor, the vice president of global outreach and mobility at NYU, said the Office of Global Services has been directly in touch with those whose statuses were reversed, but did not specify a figure or whether they were students or faculty. OGS representatives have said at in-person sessions that the number of affected university affiliates was “low.”
“Our Office of Global Services staff is continually checking the government database for updates and will be in touch with students as we receive new information,” Taylor said in an email to WSN. “Ongoing support for our community is our top priority.”
On Friday morning, Politico reported that the Trump administration had started to restore some peoples’ immigration statuses after moving to terminate more than 1,500 visas in the weeks prior. The decision came after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement faced dozens of lawsuits from international students, who said they received little explanation for their seemingly arbitrary change in immigration status.
According to a Friday court hearing, ICE will no longer terminate records based strictly on findings in the National Crime Information Center, the federal database that includes all criminal records and would flag individuals for minor infractions — such as traffic violations or being in public parks past hours — that would often be dismissed. An NYU official confirmed to WSN that some university affiliates affected by changes to their immigration status had “minor brushes with law enforcement,” and that the university still does not know why others had their status terminated.
An attorney for the Justice Department said that ICE “maintains its authority” to change visa statuses based on “unlawful activity.” ICE officials later warned that they will enact more revocations after reworking their current policies to “provide a framework for status record termination.”
Two weeks ago, President Linda Mills announced that “some” students and faculty have had their visas revoked and encouraged those impacted to review the university’s protocols on immigration enforcement. Following the announcement, schools across NYU held information sessions for students and faculty to further detail who was affected and in what capacity.
Update, April 26: This article has been updated with more information from a university official about why some NYU affiliates had their immigration statuses terminated.
Contact Aashna Miharia, Dharma Niles and Yezen Saadah at news@nyunews.com.
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