A Japanese student in Utah had his student visa status reinstated suddenly after it was mysteriously cancelled earlier this month.
His attorney believes the sudden switch-up shows the student was mistakenly flagged for deportation by artificial intelligence.
Suguru Onda, a doctoral student at Brigham Young University, learned on Friday his status had been restored, minutes after he and a group of fellow university students filed a lawsuit arguing the government suddenly and arbitrarily cancelled their visas “to coerce students” to leave the country even though they had done nothing wrong.
“He is reinstated as if it was never revoked,” attorney Adam Crayk told KSL-TV.
Onda, a father of five studying computer science, was notified earlier this month his status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System had been terminated because he was “identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked,” a procedural step that functionally ended his ability to remain in the United States for more than two weeks after the change.
The Japanese student had little apparent criminal history, besides a few speeding tickets and a fishing citation for organizing a church event where others caught too many fish, according to his lawyer.
“I feel helpless,” Onda told KSL NewsRadio at the time. “Like nobody knows (the) answer, nobody knows what to do, what’s going to happen.”
The Department of Homeland Security told NBC News it would not elaborate on Onda’s case “due to privacy concerns and visa confidentiality.”
The department has said it is using high-tech tools to search the social media activity and potential criminal histories of international students in the U.S.
That effort includes a State Department effort using artificial intelligence to screen foreign students for alleged support of terror groups, Axios reported in March.
Since taking office, more than 1,500 students from nearly 250 colleges have had their visas revoked, according to a tracker from Inside Higher Education.
The visa pullbacks have prompted lawsuits and widespread confusion.
They form the second major prong of the administration’s deportation push on college campuses.
The White House has also targeted prominent leaders of the campus pro-Palestine movement, using a little-tested authority in federal immigration law to argue their activism threatens U.S. foreign policy interests.
