The reversal comes after weeks of scrutiny over the administration’s termination of students’ records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS — a government database that tracks and manages non-citizens studying in the U.S. MSU previously said it was aware of 12 students who either had their visas revoked or had their visa records terminated.

The administration’s reversal does not apply to student visas that were revoked by the U.S. Department of State, CNN reported. It’s unclear how many MSU students had their visas revoked by the department versus those who had their SEVIS records terminated.

A student who has their visa revoked is allowed to remain in the U.S. but must reapply for a new visa if they wish to re-enter the country. On the other hand, when a student’s record in SEVIS is terminated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they lose the legal right to remain in the country.

Guskiewicz suggested that advocacy by MSU and other universities for international students played a role in the federal government’s shift. Two weeks ago, MSU and 85 other institutions filed an amicus brief claiming the status terminations were harming the central tenets of American democracy and inspiring fear among international students.

"It probably resulted, in some ways, because of the way we have stood up for our students' interest and expressed the importance of eliminating the distractions for students who were trying to get through the semester and be able to thrive while they're here," Guskiewicz said in an interview with The State News.

A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer said Friday that immigration officials have begun working on a new system for reviewing and terminating international students’ visas. Federal agencies will not make further revocations until the new system is complete, the lawyer said.

It’s still unclear what prompted the federal government to cancel the MSU students' visas or terminate their records. Some of the earliest visa revocations by the Department of State in early April were seemingly targeted at students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. Later SEVIS terminations appeared to target students whose criminal records contained minor offenses like traffic violations. Some students weren’t given any reason at all for the termination of their visa record.

One MSU student, a 27-year-old doctoral student from China, sued the Department of Homeland Security over its termination of his SEVIS record. His experience may lend credence to the notion that the government was targeting students who had run-ins with the law, regardless of whether they were ultimately convicted or not. 

The student faced assault and battery charges and was temporarily suspended from MSU after a physical altercation in a campus laboratory, according to court filings. Despite those charges being dropped in April and an investigation by MSU clearing him of any wrongdoing, the Department of Homeland Security terminated his SEVIS record, citing a criminal records check that seemingly flagged the charges. The student’s attorney claims that he has never been convicted of a violent crime nor violated any immigration law.

At a court proceeding in Washington, D.C., the Department of Justice lawyer said Immigration and Customs Enforcement maintains the authority to terminate a student’s restored SEVIS record if the student fails to maintain their status or "engages in other unlawful activity that would render him or her removable from the United States."

Administration reporter Owen McCarthy contributed reporting.