Newsletter week of April 21
Trump Administration Reverses Abrupt Terminations of Foreign Students’ US Visa Registrations
The Trump administration has announced a temporary reversal of recent terminations of foreign students' U.S. visa registrations. This decision comes after legal challenges from affected students and educational institutions. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed that it is formulating a new policy to guide future terminations of Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records. Until this policy is finalized, the records of impacted students will either be reinstated or remain active. This change applies to all affected students, not just those engaged in legal action.
EOIR Issues Interim Final Rule Decreasing Size of BIA to 15 Members
The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has published an interim final rule (IFR) announcing that it will amend its regulations relating to the size of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA or Board). The change will reduce the size of the Board to 15 members which is effective immediately. Obviously, reducing the size will of the BIA means that cases will take longer to process.
The Board currently is authorized to include 28 members. This size was set in April 2024. At that time, EOIR announced the expansion was needed due to the growing caseload before the immigration courts, with more than 113,000 BIA appeals pending at the end of fiscal year 2023.
