MORGANTOWN, W.Va (WDTV) - Immigration, West Virginia University and the Trump Administration’s commitment to mass deportations — that was going to be the top story Friday evening. However, a mass shake up from the federal courts Friday afternoon had other plans.

Here’s some context...

Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) filed a lawsuit on behalf of a WVU student whose visa had been placed in jeopardy just weeks before his graduation.

It was only one case in a long line of legal battles that have piled up against the Trump Administration’s aggressive deportation agenda.

The WVU student, Sajawal Ali Sohail, is a Pakistani national studying computer science in Morgantown, who earlier this year had received an email saying his student visa had been revoked because his name appeared in a criminal database. That led to the ACLU lawsuit, which explained that Sohail was not the perpetrator of a crime but a victim.

Friday afternoon, however, Sohail’s visa was reinstated.

The move is part of a larger announcement that the federal government is reversing the termination of thousands of student visas across the country. A lawyer for the government announced the change in federal court Friday.

“What I’m hearing from lawyers across the country who are involved in this — what I’m hearing today — is that they do anticipate that this is intended to be a universal reinstatement,” said Allison Peck, professor of law at WVU.

West Virginia University has more than 1,000 students on F-1 visas, which are used for immigrants who wish to study at universities in the United States.

According to university officials, three students and three alumni from the Morgantown campus had their visas revoked, as well as three students from the WVU Institute of Technology in Beckley.

As of April 25, WVU officials say they are currently aware of three reversals of previous decisions to terminate records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System or SEVIS.

Despite the uncertainty on what might happen next, WVU released the following statement:

“We continue to work directly with our students affected by status decision changes at the federal level. Circumstances vary which is why we’re focused on identifying ways to best support each student.”

Even with Friday’s policy reversal, the Trump Administration’s stance on immigration could have broad implications for West Virginia.

“This definitely will make international students think twice. I guess they would probably be weighing that against the opportunities that are available here still,” Peck said. “Many of the workers in healthcare, which is a big industry in Morgantown and important across the state, particularly in a state that’s losing population. The healthcare industry in West Virginia is pretty highly dependent on foreign graduates. We’re actually, in some ways, more dependent on this highly-educated foreign-born population than a lot of states are. It’s a much higher percentage of our immigrant population. It’s far higher than our percentage of undocumented people in West Virginia.”