In the US, the federal government is broadening the grounds for denying international students their legal status, targeting thousands in a Trump administration crackdown that has left many fearing deportation.

According to attorneys representing international students, the new explanations speed up deportations and back a number of policies the administration implemented this spring to cancel foreign students' study permits in the US.

Students across filed appeals in federal courts after suddenly losing their legal status in recent weeks with little explanation. Judges have frequently rendered preliminary decisions that the government did not follow due process.

After that, the government announced that it would release new regulations to revoke a student's legal status. According to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement document released in a court filing on Monday, the revocation of the visas that students used to enter the United States is now one of the legitimate justifications.

A student used to be able to stay in the US and complete their education even if their visa was canceled. Leaving the nation would just prevent them from reentering.

Brad Banias, a student's immigration lawyer who lost his status during the raid, said, "This just gave them carte blanche to have the State Department revoke a visa and then deport those students, even if they've done nothing wrong." The student had previously been charged with a driving infraction, which was found in a law enforcement database that immigration officials looked through.

The new instructions, according to Banias, significantly increase ICE's power beyond its prior policy, which did not consider visa revocation as a reason to deny a student permission to enter the country.

Colleges were in disarray and bewilderment at the beginning of the crackdown when they learned the students had lost their legal status. College administrators said that in the past, legal statuses were usually revised once colleges informed the government that students were no longer enrolled.

Colleges notified students this spring that they could be deported if they continued to work or attend classes.

Even though some of the students were classified as failure to maintain status, government attorneys stated that the change in the foreign students database did not imply that the students had truly lost their legal status. Lawyers argued that it was meant to serve as a red flag for investigation.