International students in US file lawsuits to seek redress for termination of their status

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Yet another lawsuit has been filed by an international student who recently had his F-1 student immigration status unlawfully and abruptly terminated with no specified reason as to why – despite having never committed a crime or traffic violation and having never participated in any protest in the US or elsewhere.
The doctoral student, a citizen of China, was studying and researching computer science at Dartmouth College. Last Friday, he was informed by his college via email that his student status had been terminated by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire (ACLU-NH) which filed the lawsuit on his behalf has asked the US District Court (New Hampshire) to reinstate Xiaotian Liu’s F-1 student status, which would allow him to continue his studies.
“We are alarmed by the Trump administration’s sudden revocation, without any notice or stated explanation, of student visas and status at universities across the country, including our client here in New Hampshire,” said Gilles Bissonnette, Legal Director at ACLU-NH. “International students are a vital community in our state’s universities, and no administration should be allowed to circumvent the law to unilaterally strip students of status, disrupt their studies, and put them at risk of deportation,” he added.
“These indiscriminate government actions have real-life consequences. The people affected are not just ‘case numbers,’ they are real people with real families, real colleagues, real employers, real fellow congregants and others, all of whom feel the acute pain of these inexplicably arbitrary and indefensibly inhumane decisions,” said Ronald L. Abramson, Partner at Shaheen & Gordon, the law firm representing the plaintiff.
The lawsuit details how the unlawful termination of the client’s student F-1 status violates his due process rights, as the government is required to provide him with an advance notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond. Additionally, the lawsuit states that the government is required to have grounds in order to terminate a student status, and that revocation of an F-1 visa is not sufficient ground to terminate student status.
To terminate student status, the student, for example, must fail to take full courses of study, engage in unauthorized employment, or be convicted of a violent crime. None of those situations exist in this case, thus there is no basis to terminate his student status.
This student status termination means that he cannot pursue his Ph.D. program and is no longer authorized to work as a research assistant. In addition to his education, research, and career trajectory being at risk, he faces the possibility of immediate detention and deportation, adds the lawsuit.
Cyrus D. Mehta, immigration attorney said, “Lawsuits have started against the termination of student status. US agencies cannot terminate student status in the SEVIS system based on some minor arrest or for no reason at all. Even if the underlying visa is revoked, the student should still assert they are maintaining F-1 nonimmigrant status and continue their studies.”
“Applying for reinstatement of F-1 status is counterintuitive if the student has not violated that status. Instead, if the student is being harmed by the unlawful termination in SEVIS such as being unable to seek Optional Practical Training, it is best to file to file an action in federal court under the Administrative Procedure Act seeking to reverse the arbitrary and capricious termination in SEVIS,” he added.