Boston judge blocks DHS rule capping foreign student and journalist visa stays
NEW · Mon. ~8:20 p.m. EDT
U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in Boston issued a preliminary injunction Monday blocking the Department of Homeland Security’s final rule that would have ended “duration of status” for F, J, and I nonimmigrants — generally capping students and exchange visitors at four years and foreign media I-visa holders at 240 days — one day before the Sept. 15 effective date. Saylor found the rule likely arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, saying DHS’s national-security rationale “borders on the absurd”; the injunction pauses nationwide implementation while litigation continues, with a status conference set for Oct. 2.
John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, where Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV sits. File photograph from September 2024; not from Monday’s hearing.
4300streetcar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Center-left view
Reuters’ Monday Boston wrap, Inside Higher Ed’s campus read, and Forbes’ Stuart Anderson litigation coverage cast Saylor’s PI as a last-minute win for higher-ed and labor plaintiffs: the court held DHS failed to answer ~22,000 comments or show a rational link between a four-year cap and security, while universities warned Ph.D. timelines, enrollment, and U.S. talent recruitment would take an immediate hit if the Sept. 15 start stood.
Sources: Reuters · Inside Higher Ed · Forbes
Center-right view
DHS’s July final-rule release (Secretary Markwayne Mullin), The Washington Times’ Monday court write-through, and the Washington Examiner’s duration-of-status defense frame the rule as closing a decades-old open-ended stay that let some F/J/I holders avoid routine federal re-vetting — arguing fixed admissions plus USCIS extensions restore temporary-visa integrity even as a Bush-appointed judge pauses the Sept. 15 start pending appeal options.
Sources: U.S. DHS · Washington Times · Washington Examiner