Elizabeth D. Kurlan, an attorney for the Justice Department, said during the hearing in the Northern District of California in Oakland that records for international students will be reactivated for the time being, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement crafts a new policy that will “provide a framework for status record termination.” The move comes weeks after the Trump administration began revoking the visas of some thousands of international students in addition to their records and legal statuses, seemingly taking aim at those who’ve participated in political activism or have had previous charges, like DUIs. “ICE still maintains the authority to terminate a SEVIS record for other reasons," Kurlan said at the hearing, referring to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, "such as if a student fails to maintain his or her nonimmigrant status after the record is reactivated, or engages in other unlawful activity that would render him or her removable from the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act.” Kurlan also said that going forward, ICE will not be terminating statuses solely based on findings in the National Crime Information Center, a computerized index that includes criminal history information, that resulted in some of the recent SEVIS record terminations. Many international students with terminated statuses began to discover that their records were abruptly restored Thursday afternoon, immigration attorneys and universities across the U.S. told NBC News. The reinstatements occurred with little-to-no explanation, the attorneys said.

The Trump administration will temporarily restore the legal status of more than 1,500 international students whose visas were canceled over their involvement in pro-Palestinian campus protests, The New York Times reported The New York Times on Friday.

Attorneys representing the government in numerous cases said that the legal statuses of the international students would be restored while Immigration and Customs Enforcement establishes better procedures to determine which should be terminated. Dozens of lawsuits were filed in the wake of the decision to terminate hundreds of student visas and other immigration authorizations. Some students alleged that they were told to leave the country over minuscule infractions, while others say they didn't know why they were being asked to leave. Some claimed that they were going into hiding over the orders. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Kurlan read a statement about the restoration of legal status in an Oakland, California, courtroom. A similar statement was about the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, read by others in other cases. “ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations," the statement reads. "Until such a policy is issued, the SEVIS records for plaintiff(s) in this case (and other similarly situated plaintiffs) will remain active or shall be re-activated if not currently active, and ICE will not modify the record solely based on the NCIC finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination.”