Attorneys for more than 100 international students argue in court against revoked visas
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest following the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil in New York.
By Rafael Romo, Nick Valencia and Chris Youd, CNN
Atlanta (CNN) — Attorneys for more than 100 international students in the United States whose visas have been revoked asked a federal court Thursday to temporarily block the government from changing their immigration status.
US District Court Judge Victoria Calvert did not immediately rule on the request but indicated that she plans to grant some form of temporary relief during the Thursday hearing in Atlanta. Calvert was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden in 2021.
The request stems from a lawsuit seeking to stop the revocation of visas to international students and to reinstate those that have already been revoked. The lawsuit currently includes the cases of 133 foreign students from at least five countries.
In the complaint, the students are not identified by name, but a “pseudonym due to fear of retaliation by Defendants.”
“We don’t know why their visas were revoked. We’re basically guessing. But we don’t know and that is a problem,” Charles Kuck, an attorney representing the students said Thursday in court.
During the Thursday hearing, the government argued that granting temporary relief would be harmful to “the executive branch’s ability to control immigration.” US Attorney David Powell also argued the government needs to identify the plaintiffs to prove “actual harm.”
“We can’t say who they are because we have no information. We need to know their status before we can prove actual harm,” Powell said during the hearing.
Federal officials have not specified the reasons why the students’ visas have been revoked, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said that some behavior, including participating in protests, will not be tolerated.
“They’re here to go to class. They’re not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine our universities. I think it’s lunacy to continue to allow that,” Rubio said.
The White House and DHS have not responded to CNN’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
Another hearing is scheduled for April 24, according to attorneys in the case.
More than 1,000 international students and recent graduates at more than 130 schools around the country have had their visas revoked with little or no explanation this year as the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown.
Traffic stops used as criteria to revoke visas, lawsuit says
The lawsuit, filed by the Atlanta-based legal firm Kuck Baxter on Friday, initially included the cases of 17 international students. CNN has obtained copies of both the complaint, the adjoining motion for a temporary restraining order and a modified complaint that added dozens of students and was filed at the same court late Tuesday night.
Nine of the original 17 students in the lawsuit are citizens of India and five are from China. The other three come from Colombia, Mexico, and Japan, according to the complaint and Dustin Baxter, one of the filing attorneys.
The lawsuit names three Trump administration officials as defendants: US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons.
The complaint alleges that ICE has abruptly and unlawfully terminated the students’ legal status in the United States “(…) stripping them of their ability to pursue their studies and maintain employment in the United States and risking their arrest, detention, and deportation.”
The administration, the suit says, has terminated their status by removing the students from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) used by the Department of Homeland Security to maintain information mainly regarding international students and their status in the country.
The complaint offers a synopsis of each of the original 17 cases, listing the college each student is attending, the county where they live, and the reason they believe they’re being targeted.
For example, Jane Doe 1, an international student from Colombia enrolled at Kennesaw State University and a resident of Fulton County, Georgia, believes she’s being targeted for a domestic violence case that was dismissed in February “because there was no underlying proof of any crime,” according to the complaint.
John Doe 2, an international student from China enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, believes he’s being targeted for traffic citations, including driving with an expired license plate while his driver’s license was withdrawn. “The case was closed and he had no other arrest history,” according to the complaint.
A doctoral student from China enrolled at the University of Georgia in Athens faced the most serious charge of any of the 17 students. Jane Doe 5 was arrested in November and charged with DUI, which was later reduced to reckless driving in March, according to the complaint. It also states that she “pled guilty and was sentenced to 12 months’ probation and paid all associated fines.”
Baxter said the Trump administration is going well beyond targeting only student activists. Anywhere officials saw a student encounter with a police officer, they would revoke the student visa, he said.
“So not only would they revoke the person’s student visa, even if there was no conviction, if there was just an arrest, and sometimes there wasn’t even an arrest, there was just an encounter and maybe a ticket, they would revoke the student visa,” Baxter said.
With the temporary restraining order, Baxter said, they’re seeking to have visas that have already been revoked be reinstated so that affected students can remain registered for classes at the colleges and universities they’re attending.
“We’re dealing with a lot of people who are finishing up their education, so we have people who are getting ready to defend their doctoral thesis, and all of a sudden, they were just told via email and by the school that they’re no longer registered in SEVIS, their registration has been terminated and they’re no longer students of the university. So, these people are in difficult situations,” Baxter said.
CNN’s Maxime Tamsett contributed to this report.
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