Federal judge halts Trump's plans for mass cancellation of international students’ status

A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from revoking the legal status of foreign students studying and working in the United States. On Thursday, US District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland issued a nationwide order that prevents the administration from cancelling international students' status without an individual review and following federal regulations.

Earlier this year, the administration removed thousands of foreign students from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database, citing a crackdown on students with criminal records. This removal means affected students lose their legal status, putting them at risk of arrest, detention, or deportation.

Separately, the Trump administration notified Harvard University that it was revoking the school's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which would prevent the university from enrolling international students. However, Judge White's order applies only to individual students, not institutions.


Last month, officials reinstated the status of thousands of students after legal challenges. Judge White expressed concern that officials were trying to avoid court scrutiny by quickly changing their approach on individual cases. According to Bloomberg, he wrote, "It is unclear how this game of whack-a-mole will end unless defendants are enjoined from skirting their own mandatory regulations."

The students who sued argued that the mass cancellations were unlawful and that some students were wrongly included. Judge White said those students were likely to succeed in their claim that the revocations were "arbitrary and capricious." His order also stops the administration from arresting or detaining students or applying negative legal consequences based on SEVIS cancellations while the case proceeds.

The case is John Doe v. Trump, 25-cv-3140, in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.