Lawsuits filed against cancellation of visas

Zhuo'er Chen is a student pursuing a master's degree in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. She is set to graduate next month. However, her student visa was suddenly terminated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, on April 8.

It seems that thousands of students have had a similar experience.

According to a report by the Association of International Educators, as of Monday, there have been almost 1,300 reports of international students and scholars either having their visas revoked or their records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, terminated. The affected include undergraduate, graduate and Optional Practical Training students.

Chen, joined by another three Chinese students whose visas were terminated, filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California last week.

The suit alleges that "without notice, explanation, or any form of due process, ICE terminated the student status of individuals who have done nothing more than maintaining academic standing and complying with their visa requirements".

Plaintiff Mengcheng Yu, who has lived in the United States since age 16, is also close to completing her master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University. She is set to graduate in August this year.

Plaintiff Jiarong Ouyang is from University of Cincinnati, and Plaintiff Gexi Guo is a graduate of Columbia University currently residing in New York.

"This lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to halt this unlawful pattern of SEVIS record terminations, restore plaintiffs' legal status, and prevent further irreparable harm to their educational trajectories, professional futures and immigration standing," the lawsuit document stated.

The lawsuit named Kristi Noem, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, and Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, as the defendants. The plaintiffs are represented by DeHeng Law Offices.

The plaintiffs challenge ICE's actions "for being arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law, and assert that the lack of due process also violates their constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause".

The lawsuit argues that DHS and ICE may unilaterally strip students of lawful status through SEVIS without legal authority, in defiance of regulatory limits, and without affording any procedural safeguards.

'Abrupt and sudden'

Clay Zhu, one of the lawyers representing the students, said in a virtual meeting on Monday that they have received a lot of information from students "telling us about an abrupt and sudden cancellation of their F-1 visa and service records".

He said a team of five lawyers worked overtime in the last five days to investigate the situation.

"There is no pattern based on the information I have right now. Some of the students have arrest records but have never been convicted. Some of them have minor traffic violations, and some of them have a very clean record. So, it is random to me, and there's no explanation being provided by the agency as to why this is happening on a blanket scale. This is unprecedented," Zhu said.

He said the termination of student status has been done in the past on a very individualized basis for failing to maintain full-time student status or being convicted of committing some kind of serious crime.

"Those basically are forcing the students to self-deport," Zhu said. "They have to leave the country right away. Otherwise, they would incur the so-called unlawful presence under immigration law."

"Our goal is, of course, not to just represent those four students. Our goal is to seek a nationwide temporary restraining order and also an injunction against this kind of practice. We're trying to restore service records for all the affected students," Zhu said.

Lawsuits have also been filed on behalf of the students whose visas were terminated without notice. Atlanta law firm Kuck Baxter filed a lawsuit representing 17 international students from several states.

Nineteen state attorneys general from Arizona, California, Michigan, New York and others have asked a federal judge to stop the Trump administration from canceling international student visas.

It appears that visa cancellation is not limited to international students. The Cougar, a news outlet at the University of Houston, reported on Sunday that a professor's visa was terminated unexpectedly.

Without disclosing the identity of the professor, The Cougar reported that another professor had to step in for the rest of the semester while the issue was being resolved.