Six current and former immigration lawyers advised international students and faculty to be resilient while navigating a constantly changing immigration landscape in a panel event in Harris Hall Wednesday afternoon.
The panelists gave insight and clarification on traveling safely, noncitizens’ rights when interacting with immigration enforcement, the legal battle over student immigration statuses and more.
The event — hosted by the Office of International Student and Scholar Services, the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and others — came days after the Trump administration announced it would restore 4,700 international students’ previously terminated records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.
Ian Wagreich, an immigration lawyer who helps universities manage student and temporary work visas, said students’ SEVIS records had been canceled in recent months for participating in pro-Palestinian protests, showing up in a criminal database — which can include those with minor traffic violations and those who have been acquitted — or for no discernible reason at all.
Notifications to some students with terminated SEVIS statuses threatened them with deportation, one panelist said, because they had lost the ability to be legally present in the U.S.
Students should have then received a “notice to appear” in immigration court, which could then possibly set deportation proceedings in motion. Wagreich emphasized that infringements on students’ due process rights caused many to sue in federal courts, which often ruled against the Trump administration.
He said one example of due process infringement is the government not giving people the opportunity to review evidence used against them.
“There has been no due process, and that in and of itself is enough for us to determine that these SEVIS records should not have been terminated,” Wagreich said.
Wagreich said the administration countered with a policy detailed in a new memo, arguing that the U.S. Department of State has broad authority to revoke visas directly and use that as a justification to terminate legal status. Visas allow entry into the U.S. while SEVIS records allow students to legally stay during their education. SEVIS records are maintained by a separate agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and visa revocation had not previously always meant SEVIS termination.
Wagreich predicted that the Trump administration could argue State Department visa revocations can’t be challenged in federal court because of the doctrine of consular nonreviewability, which states that decisions made by U.S. consular officers aren’t subject to judicial review. However, because the State Department would be revoking visas from Washington, instead of from a consular office abroad, he said immigration attorneys could find a way around the doctrine.
One international student in attendance who requested to remain anonymous out of fear of losing legal status said the panelists’ uncertainty about the future worried her. However, with the seats packed and late stragglers standing in the wings of Harris Hall Room 107, she said seeing so many people show up for the event gave her hope.
“I feel like I’m definitely not the only person worried about this,” she said.
She said she had planned to attend two conferences abroad this summer, but she is now reconsidering after hearing about students losing their legal statuses in the news.
One panelist who assists noncitizens with travel said they should consider flying as a voluntary interaction with law enforcement, and she expects an expanded international travel ban in the near future. Noncitizens have limited rights in airports, she added, and airport security agents usually deny entry to the U.S. to noncitizens who refuse searches, which leads to detention in many cases.
Elizabeth Gibson (Medill ’08), a managing attorney at the nonprofit National Immigrant Justice Center, emphasized that her organization’s clients are human beings with children, spouses, hopes and dreams who deserve due process. While the highest-profile cases are decided in federal courts, most immigration cases are litigated in immigration courts, which are separate from the judicial system and managed by the Department of Justice under the Trump administration.
“The court is incredibly bureaucratic. It’s demeaning, and oftentimes, the judges don’t have a lot of latitude to give people who are good people, who have played by the rules, options,” Gibson said. “When they’re not giving any leeway on anything, good people end up in really terrible situations.”
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