An international student at Carnegie Mellon University whose status to study in the United States was rescinded earlier this month has had it restored.

Jayson Ma, who is from China, received a message from an official at CMU at 10:24 p.m. on Thursday telling him his status under the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Center had been reinstated, his attorney, Joseph Murphy, told TribLive Friday.

“Your SEVIS record has been returned to active status,” the notice said. “Hopefully it will stay that way… We will continue to check daily.”

Ma’s reinstatement came just the day before a Justice Department attorney in Washington, D.C., told a federal court that the Trump administration is walking back its plans to cancel more than 1,500 visas for international students, according to the New York Times.

According to the article, Justice Department attorney Joseph Carilli said immigration officials are working on a new system for reviewing and terminating the visas, and until that is complete, agencies will not make any additional changes or revocations.

Ma, 24, came to the United States for high school in 2016 and was accepted at CMU four years later to study electrical computer engineering.

He received notice on April 7 that his status as an international student had been terminated.

Ma was one of about 1,500 students across the country who were targeted by the Trump administration.

Immigration attorneys across the country have said that it appeared the terminations were affecting international students who had been involved in interactions with law enforcement, even minor ones.

In Ma’s case, he was charged with driving under the influence in 2023 but completed Allegheny County’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program successfully, resulting in expungement of the charges.

He has only one full semester left in his studies and was distraught at the prospect of not finishing his degree.

Murphy said Friday he thinks one of the reasons why Ma’s status was reinstated is because of the vast amounts of attention these cases have been receiving across the country.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed in federal court, including several in Western Pennsylvania by students from Gannon University, La Roche University and CMU.

“It is a coordinated campaign of litigation by immigration attorneys,” Murphy said.

In Ma’s case, they also did a media blitz, allowing him to speak to reporters in Pittsburgh.

“Obviously, we made a lot of noise,” Murphy said. “People saw the story in the news. People here in Western Pennsylvania helped make calls and did things.”