ICE Issues New International Student Policy as Lawsuits Mount

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has circulated a new policy on terminating foreign students’ records from a federal database at issue in a deluge of lawsuits across the country.

Department of Justice attorney Johnny Walker confirmed the policy at a Tuesday hearing before the US District Court of the District of Columbia, one of multiple federal courts hearing cases that have sought the reinstatement of Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems records removed by the Trump administration over the past several weeks.

The deactivation of those records threatened the lawful status of thousands of students, as well as their continued eligibility to work and study in the US.

Government attorneys last week said ICE would develop a new a framework for student record terminations. Although it was confirmed by Walker, other government attorneys defending the student records in court Tuesday still hadn’t seen the new policy.

According to a copy reviewed by Bloomberg Law, the latest policy provides specific guidance for government officials to terminate the records, which reflect students’ compliance with the F-1 student program. But ICE retains broad discretion over the ability to terminate records.

The policy states that a student’s record could be terminated for various reasons, including failure to report employment through the Optional Training Program, withdrawal from school, approval of a change of status, and revocation of a visa by the Department of State.

A terminated record could indicate a student is no longer maintaining legal status, it said. But it doesn’t always result in an adverse impact on the student, according to the policy.

The Homeland Security Department didn’t comment on the new policy.

Government attorneys have argued in multiple lawsuits that termination of the SEVIS records doesn’t have an impact on a student’s lawful status. That’s a position that students’ attorneys say is contradicted by guidance to colleges on the Department of Homeland Security’s website. It’s also undermined by the practical consequences of the termination, including the inability to change status or seek employment, they’ve argued.

In a separate hearing Tuesday over a student record lawsuit, Assistant US Attorney John M. Newman told a District of Montana judge that he still hadn’t seen the new ICE policy that led to the SEVIS reinstatements last week.

“We don’t know what it is,” he said.

The case is Patel v Lyons, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-01096, preliminary injunction hearing 4/29/25.