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The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown strikes higher education, prompting a slew of lawsuits against White House officials.
US President Donald Trump (IMAGE: REUTERS)
US deportation: An Indian student and three others at Michigan public universities have filed against Donald Trump administration over possible deportation from the United States after their student immigration status was terminated “unlawfully”.
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown strikes higher education, prompting a slew of lawsuits against White House officials.
India’s Chinmay Deore, who studies at Wayne State University, China’s Xiangyun Bu and Qiuyi Yang, and Yogesh Joshi from Nepal, have filed the lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and immigration officials, news agency PTI reported.
The students claimed that their student immigration status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) was illegally terminated without “sufficient notice and explanation.”
SEVIS is a database that tracks information about nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors in the United States.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, which is representing the students, said they “filed a federal lawsuit along with a request for an emergency injunction on behalf of the students who had their F-1 student immigration status unlawfully and abruptly terminated by the Trump administration for no valid reason and without notice.”
Asking the court to reinstate their legal status, the students said neither were they charged with any crime, nor did they violate any immigration law. The students said they were also not active in on-campus protests regarding any political issue.
“None of them has been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime in the US. None has violated any immigration law. Nor have they been active in on-campus protests regarding any political issue. The lawsuit asks the court to reinstate the status of these students so that they will be able to complete their studies and avoid facing the risk of detention and deportation,” the complaint said.
“At most, what seems to connect students targeted by this newfound and unlawful policy is that the students had some encounter with some American law enforcement official at some point in the past, no matter how innocuous — including receiving a speeding or parking ticket (or even a warning) or lawfully withdrawing an application to enter the United States,” it added.
Ramis Wadood, staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan, said that status terminations not only disrupt the lives of the students being targeted, but also deter future international scholars from choosing Michigan and the US as their academic destination.
“These cruel and illegal government actions have real-life consequences. Status terminations don’t just disrupt the lives of the students being targeted; the government’s actions will inevitably deter future international scholars from choosing Michigan and the US as their academic destination. This will further undermine the reputation of our universities as leaders in research, innovation, and campus diversity, all of which are currently in jeopardy,” he said as quoted by the news agency.
Similar lawsuits have been filed across the country in states like New Hampshire, Indiana and California.
The development comes days after a US judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a 21-year-old Indian undergraduate, Krish Lal Isserdasani, whose student visa was cancelled.
(With inputs from PTI)
- Location :
New York, United States of America (USA)
