A federal judge on Jan. 26 ruled that a lawsuit filed by two Montana State University students whose visas were temporarily revoked last year under the Trump administration’s “student criminal alien initiative” can proceed.
The students, who are from Turkey and Iran, are referred to as John Roe and Jane Doe in the lawsuit they filed last year. One was pursuing a master’s degree in microbiology and the other was working toward a doctorate in physics and electrical engineering when MSU discovered during a routine review of international student records that their F-1 visas had been revoked.
Shortly after that discovery, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on behalf of the students, arguing that their visas should be restored because they were in “full compliance” with their visas’ terms and the federal government failed to provide the students or their school with “any meaningful explanation” for their visas’ termination.
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Judge blocks federal government from revoking 2 MSU students’ F-1 visas
The restraining order came just one day after the ACLU of Montana filed a lawsuit on behalf of the students, who were informed via email April 10 that MSU had discovered their F-1 visas were revoked during a mandatory, routine review of international student records.
Days after the lawsuit’s filing, Dana Christensen, a federal district court judge in Missoula, blocked the Department of Homeland Security from revoking the visas. DHS asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit in September, arguing that the plaintiffs’ claims were moot because their visas had been reinstated and DHS had changed its policies. The students opposed the motion, maintaining that “there is no assurance that [the federal government] will not once again unlawfully and arbitrarily” revoke the students’ visas in the future.
In a 15-page order issued on Jan. 26, Christensen sided with the plaintiffs, writing that “it is simply not clear what DHS’ new policy is, and consequently, whether that new policy fully addresses the issues presented in this case.” Christensen also agreed with the plaintiffs that it is not clear that “the challenged conduct will not recur.”
Alex Rate, an attorney for ACLU, told the Helena Independent Record that the judge’s order will allow the plaintiffs to depose immigration officials about their actions.
The Doe v. Noem lawsuit is one of at least 65 lawsuits filed against the federal government last year in response to its move to “quietly and unexpectedly” terminate international students’ visas, according to reporting by Inside Higher Ed. Judges assigned to those cases blocked the revocations in more than half of them, Inside Higher Ed found in its April report.
Disclosure: MSU president Brock Tessman is married to former MTFP deputy director and current part-time MTFP contractor Kristin Tessman. MTFP business staff do not have input into editorial coverage.
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