Visas Restored for All 12 Harvard Students, Recent Grads Affected by Revocations

All 12 of the Harvard students and recent graduates whose student visas were revoked by the State Department have had their visa status reverted back to active, as of Saturday, according to the Harvard International Office.

The HIO announced the reinstatements in a Sunday update to their Frequently Asked Questions page, just two days after a Justice Department lawyer said the Trump administration would restore more than 4,700 international students’ student visa records.

During a Friday court hearing in Washington, D.C., a Justice Department lawyer said that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials were working on a new policy to review and terminate international students’ records from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a federal database.

Until that policy is in place, student records that had been terminated from SEVIS will be restored, along with the students’ legal status, the DOJ announced.

But Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, said the Trump administration has “not reversed course on a single visa revocation.”

“What we did is restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked,” McLaughlin said.

Harvard University spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment Sunday evening.

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.