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Two days later, judges’ widespread rejection of that Department of Justice strategy, and a growing number of legal wins for students, seem to have prompted the Trump administration to reverse course.

The Associated Press Friday that the government is now restoring terminated records for some students, though it’s unclear how many, as lawsuits against the administration pile up.

In ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s U.S. District Court on Wednesday, government attorney Denise Faulk argued — unsuccessfully in the end — against the need for a temporary restraining order to protect a Pima County-based student plaintiff.

She said the cancellation of the student’s record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database, known as SEVIS, doesn’t actually mean her legal status was canceled, a claim disputed by the student’s attorney and rejected by federal courts across the U.S. in recent days.

The Pima County master’s student from India, identified only as “ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Student Doe #1,â€� is so scared of being arrested and separated from her U.S. citizen husband and 2-year-old daughter that she’s been living in a secret location, for fear that immigration authorities could find her at home, said her attorney, Matt Green, on Wednesday. The student has stopped working and has been taking classes remotely, he said.

Faulk argued Wednesday that “at this point,� the student, who was set to graduate in May, has faced no actual harm due to the April 2 cancellation of her SEVIS record by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security.

“Nobody has told her she can’t go to school. Nobody has told her she can’t graduate. Nobody has told her she can’t go to work,� said Faulk, although across the U.S., universities are advising students — correctly, experts say, based on current regulations — that the terminations mean they can’t work and are at risk of being detained.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Student Doe #1 is the plaintiff in one of three lawsuits filed by 13 ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ international students in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s U.S. District Court this month. The complaints are among dozens filed by students nationwide, as plaintiffs claim they were not given a chance to respond before DHS canceled the SEVIS records, a due process violation, and seek a halt to the government’s actions.

Judges in Michigan, Illinois and D.C. are among those who already rejected the DOJ argument that SEVIS terminations have no effect, which Green said ignores the reality facing students who, without a SEVIS record, have no way to prove their legal status.

On Friday, DOJ attorneys read a statement in multiple courthouse proceedings reversing the government’s position. The statement, obtained by the AP, said, “ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations. Until such a policy is issued, the SEVIS records for plaintiff(s) in this case (and other similarly situated plaintiffs) will remain Active or shall be re-activated if not currently active and ICE will not modify the record solely based on the NCIC finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination.�

NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, maintained by the FBI.

Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck said lawyers are trying to figure whether students’ visas will also be restored and what prompted the reversal.

“We don’t know why, but losing 50 different times, with another 150 cases pending, probably doesn’t bode well for your legal strategy,â€� he told the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ on Friday. He said litigation will continue until it’s clear ICE is complying with the law.

Contradictory positions

In ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s federal courthouse Wednesday, Chief Magistrate Judge Jennifer Zipps pressed Faulk for assurance Student #1 would not be detained or otherwise harmed by the SEVIS cancellation.

“One thing that concerns me is you said so far, she hasn’t suffered adverse consequences,� Zipps said to Faulk. “But if there are other adverse consequences that could result from this ... if the court waited to enter a (protective) order until one of those occurred, it would be too late.�

“I probably shouldn’t have said ‘so far,’ because we don’t know that anything else is going to happen,� Faulk said. “... I can’t address the litany of possible harms that have happened to other people.�

The unnamed plaintiff’s student visa was also revoked by the U.S. State Department on March 31 after it learned of a prior arrest, which Green said was a misdemeanor charge that was later dismissed and that shouldn’t affect her legal status. DHS gave no explanation for the termination of her SEVIS record.

Faulk cited a declaration from DHS official Andre Watson that’s appeared in dozens of cases nationwide, as the Department of Justice seeks to defend itself against a slew of lawsuits from students.

“Terminating a record in SEVIS does not terminate an individual’s nonimmigrant status in the United States,� wrote Watson, assistant director of the national security division for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, in the April 16 . Watson said regulations don’t allow the ICE-managed “Student Visit and Exchange Program� to terminate a student’s nonimmigrant status, and that the program has never claimed it was doing so.

Green argued the loss of a SEVIS record amounts to “a functional loss of status.� The only way students can comply with the terms of their status as foreign students, as well as apply for work and practical-training opportunities, is with an active SEVIS record, he said.

The DOJ argument contradicts sworn testimony from two “designated school officials� whose job is to ensure international students remain in status, Green said. It also contradicts the position of another DHS agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, which Green said is the agency best positioned to make that assessment.

While ICE is an enforcement arm of DHS, it’s USCIS that determines whether non-citizens are eligible for immigration benefits, and the agency has previously decided that a SEVIS record termination does cancel legal status as a foreign student, Green told the court Wednesday.

“This is their wheelhouse,� he said of USCIS. “The government is in a difficult position here this afternoon, because it has the right hand not agreeing at all with the left hand, and the left hand (USCIS) really is the more knowledgeable component here.�

Universities ‘baffled’ by DOJ position

Cancellation of a SEVIS record has real consequences under existing regulations, despite what DHS is now claiming, said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

The DHS argument “has baffled everyone who knows the regulation part of this,� she said Thursday. “The bigger question that it begs is: If a SEVIS termination has no legal ramification, then why is the government taking the action in the first place?�

Even as DHS argues in court that the terminations have no effect, government officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio have been warning of dire consequences for students who remain in the U.S. without status.

DHS reiterated that warning in an unsigned Wednesday email, responding to the Star’s questions about DHS’s courtroom argument.

DHS did not address the Star’s questions, citing privacy concerns, but said it “conducts regular reviews� of the SEVIS database to see if visa holders are in compliance.

DHS reiterated its public position in the email: “Individuals who remain in the U.S. without lawful immigration status may be subject to arrest and removal. For such individuals, the safest and most efficient option is self-deportation.�

Aw said the term “self-deportation� is misleading, because it suggests there are grounds for a legal deportation, which there aren’t in these cases.

Attorney Kuck has told the Star he suspects DHS used an automated process powered by artificial intelligence to cross-reference SEVIS records against databases of criminal or civil violations, canceling records that had any law enforcement contact, no matter how minor.

The lack of individual consideration would explain what he called the clumsiness of the cancellations, making it easier for students to prevail in court, he said.

Wednesday’s case, as in the other ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ student lawsuits, centers on the SEVIS cancellation, not the State Department’s student-visa revocation. Typically, even if a student’s visa is revoked, they are still allowed to stay in the country to finish their studies as long as their status as foreign students in the SEVIS database remains active, Green said. A student visa only controls the student’s entry to the country, not his or her legal status as a foreign student once they are here.

At least 1,220 students at 187 schools have had their visas revoked or SEVIS record terminated since late March, an AP review found. The students often had only minor encounters with law enforcement, such as speeding tickets, on their records. In other cases, students had no law enforcement encounters.

The cancellations have upended life for students who chose to study and start their careers in the U.S., Aw said.

“We’re talking about human beings,� she said. “We’re talking about young people for the most part who are far from home, far from their families, and far from the support systems they normally count on.�

‘Devastating’ for students

The ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ lawsuits name as defendants President Donald Trump, ICE’s Phoenix office director John Cantu, acting ICE director Todd Lyons and DHS secretary Kristi Noem. The plaintiffs all requested anonymity in the proceedings for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration.

DHS’s claim that SEVIS terminations have no effect isn’t reassuring to students, many of whom have already opted to leave the U.S. rather than risk being detained.

That includes some University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ students, who have fled the U.S., Chair of the Faculty Leila Hudson has said.

Students with terminated records have also received notices from the U.S. embassy in their home country, authored by the U.S. State Department, warning that if they don’t leave the U.S., they risk deportation — possibly to a country that is not their home country, said Jesse Evans-Schroeder, one of the attorneys representing ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Student Doe #1.

That’s another conflict with the DOJ’s position in court, she said.

Students are “panicked, they’re terrified, they’re ashamed,� she said, adding many of them feel deeply obligated to their families who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for their education. “It’s devastating.�

When a SEVIS record is terminated, university officials can’t update it anymore, which has consequences, Aw said.

“Let’s say a student is graduating. You can’t even go into the record to say the student has graduated,� she said. “This is why folks are baffled when the government says, ‘This doesn’t have implication for your status.’ Then why are you doing it?�

The government’s lack of transparency has had a chilling effect, Aw said.

“The confusion and lack of clarity means every (international) student is wondering, ‘Am I next?� she said.

‘Not reassuring’

Like Faulk in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s federal court, DOJ attorneys have struggled to defend the government’s position that SEVIS record cancellations don’t cancel legal status, and they’ve taken pains to avoid assuring the court that student plaintiffs are safe from deportation.

In a D.C. court case before a frustrated District Judge Ana C. Reyes, DOJ attorney Joseph Carilli could not explain the impact of plaintiff Akshar Patel’s SEVIS record cancellation, nor say whether Patel was in the U.S. legally.

Judge Reyes called the situation “Kafkaesque,� according to a of the April 16 proceedings, in which the judge ultimately granted Patel a temporary restraining order, after multiple DHS officials couldn’t rule out ICE coming after the student if he attended classes.

“How are you not able to answer that question?� Reyes asked Carilli. “I mean, how is Mr. Patel supposed to know if he’s here legally if you don’t even know if he’s here legally? ... This isn’t Schrödinger’s visa. Either he’s here legally or he’s not here legally. If you can’t answer that question, you have to explain why you can’t answer that question.�

“I cannot answer that question,� Carilli replied.

In the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ courtroom Wednesday, Green cited a Western District of Michigan case in which the judge rejected the DOJ’s argument that the threat of arrest or deportation was “speculative.â€�

In her ruling for the plaintiffs, Judge Jane Beckering called that assertion “not especially reassuring.� She cited the case of Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk who “was approached and surrounded by six officers (several wearing masks and/or hoods), stripped of her cellphone and backpack, handcuffed, and taken into custody in an unmarked vehicle� without prior notice of her visa revocation.

‘Huge loss’ for U.S.

On Thursday, Judge Zipps granted the temporary restraining order for ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Student Doe #1, protecting her against further government action while litigation is pending. Zipps also granted her request for anonymity, which the DOJ also opposed.

Ultimately, Zipps and other judges around the country will rule on whether to impose preliminary injunctions to halt DHS’s actions.

Students’ revoked visas have not yet been reinstated, despite the DOJ’s apparent reversal on the SEVIS records, Evans-Schroeder said.

“The reactivation of the SEVIS records is far from the end of the story,� she said. “As far as we know, they could be scheming to pick these students up, detain them, and place them in removal proceedings based on the visa revocations.�

Kuck said ICE’s reversal doesn’t undo the hardship students have already faced.

“I’ve got kids who lost their jobs, who might not get them back,� he told the AP. “We’ve got kids who missed finals, missed graduation. How do you get any of that stuff back?�

Many international students have lost faith they’d be safe studying in the U.S., and that will hurt U.S. universities, as well as the economy, Aw said.

International students contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy and supported 378,000 jobs here in the last school year, she said.

Most of the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥-based international students whom Green has consulted with are pursuing careers in science, technology and math. Not only are they talented, they also “pay full freightâ€� at U.S. universities that benefit from their enrollment, he said.

At stake is “American competitiveness,� Aw said. “Yet we’re seeing actions taken that have a chilling effect not only for today, but it can have implications long and wide.�

Foreign-student interest in pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in the U.S. declined by 38% between January and March, Aw said, citing data from , which helps students evaluate international study options.

“Students and their families have a lot of choices of where they can go to study,� she said. “They’re reading the news in their home countries and if their goal was, ‘The U.S. is where I want to come,’ we can assure you they’re now looking at other destinations. ... That is a huge loss for the United States.�