Judge blasts Trump administration's student visa terminations as 'arbitrary and capricious'

Source: ABC News

April 29, 2025, 6:23 PM


A federal judge blasted the Trump administration's termination of immigration records for thousands of foreign students in the United States as "arbitrary and capricious," demanding that the government provide detailed explanations as to why and how the records were terminated and what this means for students.

"I think we all agree it was arbitrary and capricious," Judge Ana Reyes said about the Trump administration's move to terminate records of foreign students in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a database that schools and government agencies used to confirm if foreign students are abiding by the conditions of their stay, during a court hearing for an international student's case in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. "This was not ideal by any stretch of the imagination," she continued.

Akshar Patel, a computer science student from India, sued the Trump administration after his SEVIS record was recently terminated based on a speeding ticket from a few years ago. On the heels of the Trump administration's recent announcement that it is reinstating SEVIS records for some international students whose records had been terminated, Patel sought a preliminary injunction to ensure he can maintain his status and won't be detained or deported.

"It still boggles my mind that we're firing tens of thousands of federal workers on no notice and then take 10 to 20 of them to run a bunch of names through a database to see if there are students -- if they have a speeding record," Reyes said.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-blasts-trump-administrations-student-visa-terminations-arbitrary/story?id=121281986