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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
@ReichlinMelnick
Sep 24, 2020 • 8 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
Another major change to the legal immigration system; the Trump administration wants to eliminate "duration of status" visas for international students, exchange visitors, and international media.

Students would be limited to visas that last 2-4 years, with extensions allowed.
Under DHS's proposal, it seems that international journalists on assignment in the US would be effectively prohibited from remaining for long periods of time.

The proposal would limit their visas to at most 240 days, and require them to file for Extension of Statuses after that.
New restrictions on student visas would also be imposed by the rule, including limiting language training students to a maximum 24-month period of stay, requiring students to leave the U.S. more quickly after their visa expires, and setting a limit on changing educational levels.
Importantly, under the new rule international students would receive automatic six-month extensions of their status once they filed for an extension, which would in times when @USCIS was actually functional ensure that people would get an answer before their status expired.
Here's the full list of changes DHS says the rule would make for international media.

I don't know much about "I" visas, so I don't know how many foreign journalists use them to remain in the US for long periods of time. But these changes seem designed to make that impossible.
Here's another good thread going over some of the more fine details of the rule, from someone with significantly more experience in these types of visas than me.
Importantly, @doug_rand notes that the new proposed rule would effectively impose racist nationality-based limitations on some foreign students, declaring people security threats purely based on the place they were born and the nationality they posses.
Probably the biggest change in the rule would be a ban on student visas longer than 2 years for any person born in, or a citizen of, a country with a student visa overstay rate over 10%—meaning no bachelor/grad degrees.

As I show, that bans most of Africa

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More from @ReichlinMelnick

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Apr 1
Vance is badly wrong here. In 2019, a police informant alleged the guy was in MS-13. He spent a year in ICE detention as a result, then won his case. He’s been out for the last five years, married to a U.S. citizen, has two kids, and STILL has no criminal record at all.
In 2019, Mr. Abrego was arrested outside a Home Depot, his only criminal arrest.

A cop declared that he was a gang member because he was wearing a Bulls jersey and a "confidential informant" said he was in an MS-13 clique in a state he'd never lived in.
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When ICE filed evidence against Mr. Abrego in 2019, it submitted its own arrest document, which falsely claimed he had been arrested as part of a murder investigation. Despite this error, the immigration judge had to trust ICE's allegations b/c of caselaw, so he was denied bond. Image
Read 13 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Apr 1
Oh my god. They deported a man who an immigration judge had declared was "more likely than not" to face persecution in El Salvador... to El Salvador!

They outright admit it! Yet the Trump admin's response to a court is basically "oops, well, no take backsies." Image
This guy is part of the group of alleged MS-13 members sent to El Salvador on March 15.

In 2019, a PG County Police informant alleged he was connect to MS-13. He has only traffic tickets and has apparently been living a quiet life with family since winning protection in 2019. The respondent argues that the Immigration Judge clearly erred in determining that he is a verified member of MS-13 because there is no reliable evidence in the record to support such a finding (Respondent's Br. at 6-9). In this regard, the respondent asserts that a Prince George's County Police Department Gang Field Interview Sheet ("GFIS") is based on hearsay relayed by a confidential source (Exh. 4). The respondent also claims that he presented sufficient evidence to rebut the allegation that he is affiliated with MS-13, including character references and criminal records showi...
In 2019, an immigration judge agreed he was likely to be persecuted if sent back to El Salvador - a protection known as "withholding of removal."

Despite having won his case, on March 12, 2025, ICE arrested him. Three days later, he was illegally sent to El Salvador. Image
Read 6 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Mar 30
NEW: An ACLU filing sheds light on how "Andry," the gay make-up artist sent to rot in a prison in El Salvador, ended up labeled "Tren de Aragua" by ICE.

Documents filed by ICE shows that the ONLY evidence ICE listed for membership in TdA was a tattoo of a crown with "mom" below. Image
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Here are the tattoos that ICE declared were evidence that Andry, a gay make-up artist who came to a port of entry seeking asylum from Venezuela, was a member of the vicious gang "Tren de Aragua."

I am not making this up. This is it. "Mom" and "Dad" with crowns over them. Image
The document, a gang questionnaire that was filled out when Andry was first detained by ICE, is maddening.

Andry keeps saying he has no connection with the gangs, yet the ICE officer filling out the form keeps writing in things suggesting he's linked to Tren de Aragua. Image
Read 9 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Mar 30
NEW: Another documents filed by the ACLU is an unclassified ICE document showing what it alleges are Tren de Aragua tattoos. The @nypost also published these in 2024.

But reverse image search shows these images were stolen from the internet and have nothing to do with TdA! 🧵 Image
The "Jump-Man" imagine, which the New York Post claimed "refers to 23 de Enero ... a Venezuelan neighborhood" (it's Michael Jordan's number, guys), was first posted on Twitter in 2015 by a random Michael Jordan fan account. Image
Image
The AK-47 tattoo posted in the ICE Homeland Security Investigations "intelligence report" appears to be taken from a random Turkish tattoo artist's profile. Image
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Read 11 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Mar 30
NEW: @ACLU obtained ICE's "Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide," confirming all it takes to be sent to rot in prison in El Salvador is 1) having a tattoo an ICE officer says is a "gang tattoo" and 2) displaying "logos," "symbols," or clothes an ICE officer says are gang signs. Image
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In order for ICE to declare someone an "Alien Enemy," ICE must first determine they are a Venezuelan over age 14, and then second find 8 points on a scoring guide they made up.

It's 4 points for having alleged gang tattoos and 4 points for displaying gang "logos" or "symbols." Image
This checklist is shocking. A person can be declared an "Alien Enemy" based ONLY on communications with someone ICE says is a member, and nothing more.

6 points for texting a "known member of TDA" + 3 points for Venmoing or CashApping a "known member" = 9 points = TDA member. Image
Read 11 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Mar 28
NEW: Judge Brinkema UNLOADED on ICE's "evidence" of TdA membership:

"This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issued on this, I'd throw you out of my chambers."

This is why due process matters! This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issue on this, I'd throw you out of my chambers. No agent should do this type of editorializing, not when people's liberty is at stake. I expect more from the government than this kind of very shoddy work. This is assumptions and putting words in people's mouths. You don't have it here. I was shocked when I saw this. It came in late on Thursday afternoon and I was getting tired at the end of the day and it woke me up. But anyway, you don't have it. It's not here.
Here's an example of the "rigorous vetting" of gang membership that the Trump admin claims it's doing:

A woman admitted that her dead ex-husband, who she left 10 years ago, had been a TdA member.

From that — and nothing more! — ICE declared she "is a senior member of the TDA." THE COURT: All right. And it is the sorriest statement I've ever seen. First of all, it's pure hearsay in the sense that it's not any evidence that he himself, as I understand it, directly has. In other words, he did not interrogate either of these two people and hear this directly. His statement is that it was reported to him that this was done. And if you look at the seminal paragraphs in his statement, paragraph 14, this is what he says:
(As read): "Upon arrest, the petitioners were read their Miranda Rights. agreed to speak with the border patrol agents. She stated that she is associated with the TDA terrorist organization. She stated that she was previously married to Mr. , a member of TDA. She stated that she is from the municipality of Aragua, Venezuela, where TDA is based, and she knows members of TDA. She stated that she separated from her ex-husband approximately 10 years ago. She stated that her ex-husband was killed by the Venezuelan government due to his affiliation with TDA. She stated she met after separati...
illegally." Two paragraphs later, paragraph 16, the same apparently investigating agents, draw the conclusion: (As read): is a senior member of the TDA." How do you get from somebody who was married possibly 10 years ago to a TDA gang member, marriage, all of a sudden she's a senior member? This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issue on this, I'd throw you out of my chambers.
Judge Brinkema, on ICE's "evidence" a woman was a Tren de Aragua member:

- "Terrible, terrible affidavit"
- "Very shoddy work"
- "No agent should do this type of editorializing, not when people's liberty is at stake"
- "This is assumptions and putting words in people's mouths."
Read 5 tweets

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