Exclusive: Jayapal seeks answers on student visa cancellations

• The administration said it would reverse some cancellations in a federal database in court last Friday while it develops a new system. But other students are still in immigration detention and visa revocations can still occur in the future.
• The sudden status changes — weeks before graduation — sparked about 100 lawsuits across the country as students tried to readjust their legal status.

Driving the news: "This appears to be an attack on student visa holders writ-large, and not just on those who hold policy positions with which the administration disagrees," wrote Jayapal, who is ranking member on the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.

• The letter, signed by more than 130 other Democrats in Congress, is directed to the Department of State, which has the power to revoke visas, and the Department of Homeland Security, which can detain and deport students when they no longer have valid visas.

State of play: Hundreds of students had their visas canceled and thousands had their legal status revoked in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database, which schools use to verify the immigration status of their students, allowing them to attend class or conduct research.

• Students have been flagged for revocation through a combination of participating in campus demonstrations and having a record in the National Crime Information Center database, which includes charges that were dropped or not convicted.

• In court, the government said that it is implementing a new system and won't make new changes to students' statuses in the SEVIS database until then.

The big picture: The sudden precarity of legal status, as the Trump administration increases the tempo of immigration-related arrests, has put university students in a difficult position.

• At least one student has already self-deported, according to DHS.

Jayapal fears this could lead to students and researchers choosing not to study in the U.S.

• "The Trump administration's heavy-handed and politically motivated immigration enforcement is turning university campuses into places of fear, rather than learning," she writes.