A federal judge recently slammed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for wasting invaluable resources in the SEVIS crackdown, even though the US government is pushing cost-cutting methods.
Despite checking over 1.3 million student names through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, only 0.49% had any hits, and even all of those were not criminals.
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In the court, the ICE’s lawyer revealed that they had 10 to 20 employees manually entering names for up to three weeks. As the US economy is in shreds, this is an extremely insufficient use of federal funds and time by the authorities.
Judge Reyes went on to point out this ridiculous method as the officials flagged any student who appeared on the database and terminated their SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) status without further checks and warnings. This can include people who were acquitted in court, got a speeding ticket, and even those who went missing.
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SEVIS is an online system that holds records for international students under SEVP (Student’s and Exchange Visitor Program). Since January, nearly 5,000 F-1, M, and J visa holders have had their SEVIS status terminated, only to be restored recently when the court intervened.
However, ICE refuses to back down as they have now introduced a new policy giving them full authority to terminate any F-1 visas for any reason. Immigration attorneys believe this will be misused to impose a more brutal crackdown on students, just like the recent SEVIS terminations.
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As the court proceedings are underway, more details are awaited.
