The Trump administration on Friday announced that it will reinstate the legal status of an undisclosed number of international students whose visas were recently terminated, potentially including impacted students and recent graduates throughout Texas.
By Friday afternoon, officials at the University of Texas in Austin confirmed "multiple visa reactivations," although they didn't disclose exact numbers. The University of Texas at San Antonio confirmed that at least five of its current and former international students who were affected had their visas restored.
The reversal was disclosed by the U.S. Justice Department in a court filing on Friday as part of a lawsuit filed by an impacted student in Massachusetts earlier this week. According to the court filing, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is developing a new policy for international students. In the meantime, student visa records will not be terminated "solely based on" flagged criminal background checks like misdemeanors or cases that were later dismissed.
The court filing also states that student visa records would be reactivated for hundreds of international students or graduates who filed lawsuits after having their legal status changed. As of Friday, it was not immediately clear if the reversal would be granted to those who did not take legal action against their visa revocation.
According to Inside Higher Ed, at least four lawsuits have been filed by seven students or recent graduates at Texas universities.
The U.S. Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to data compiled by Inside Higher Ed and Texas Newsroom partners around the state, more than 350 international students and recent graduates in Texas had their legal status changed by the U.S Department of State over the last few weeks. They're among more than 1,800 people nationwide who had their visas revoked.
This number includes at least 170 impacted students throughout the University of Texas System, at least 23 international students and recent graduates at Texas A&M University and 27 students at the University of North Texas, among others. However, the estimated impact is likely an undercount, as many universities declined to provide specifics to journalists.
Texas has one of the largest populations of international students in the country, with more than 76,000, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The wave of visa revocations came as part of the federal government's crackdown on student activism on college campuses. In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the federal government would revoke the visas of students who participate in any movement that vandalizes or causes disruptions on university campuses.
More than a hundred people at UT Austin were arrested last year after students erected encampments in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing war in Gaza. Similar demonstrations happened at Texas A&M and at UT Dallas, where at least 20 students were arrested.
This is a developing story.