Judge grants injunction protecting WMU international students' enrollment status
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — A judge granted a preliminary injunction to a number of international students, including three at Western Michigan University, saying the federal government must keep their information in a database that tracks their enrollment status.
U.S. District Court Judge Jane Beckering issued the preliminary injunction in a written order Wednesday. She told Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that she may not terminate the students' records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System 'absent valid ground' as set forth by law. The judge also told the federal government it may not arrest, detain or move the students out of the jurisdictions they are already in without telling the court first.
Beckering had already issued a temporary restraining order to keep the students' information in SEVIS ahead of a hearing on the matter. That was held Tuesday.
'At oral argument on May 6, 2025, Defendants argued that the general authority that Congress conferred under 8 U.S.C. § 1372 to 'develop and conduct a program to collect … information' about nonimmigrant students somehow provides them specific authority to terminate Plaintiffs' status,' Beckering wrote in part in the injunction. 'The Court finds the argument wholly unpersuasive and Defendants' reliance on § 1372 for this proposition misplaced.'
Beckering told the government to provide proof by May 13 that the students' information is back in SEVIS. The injunction remains in effect indefinitely as the students' lawsuit against the federal government moves forward.
The three WMU students are among 10 at various universities in Michigan and elsewhere who are suing the government, saying it unlawfully terminated their status in SEVIS.
According to a redacted version of the original lawsuit previously sent to News 8, the reason government officials stated for terminating the students' SEVIS status in an email was 'OTHERWISE FAILING TO MAINTAIN STATUS: Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked.'
According to the suit, one WMU student is a 27-year-old man from India who is expected to graduate this year with a master's in industrial engineering. He completed probation in January and a misdemeanor retail fraud case was dismissed. A speeding violation was also dismissed. Attorneys in the complaint said that whether or not the dismissal is considered a 'conviction' in immigration law, it does not make the student removable or inadmissible form the U.S.
The second student is a 27-year-old man from Nepal who previously graduated from WMU with a bachelor's and master's degrees in aerospace engineering. In his record is one traffic violation, which lawyers say was dismissed after he paid a fine.
A third is a 31-year-old woman who is a Chinese citizen. The doctoral education student is married to a U.S. citizen, has a daughter who is a U.S. citizen and is expecting another child. In December 2020, she got a speeding ticket in Nebraska, which was later dismissed the following year.
The government has until June 17 to file its response to the lawsuit.
In April, WMU leaders shared that six students had their SEVIS status terminated, with one student's visa revoked that the university was aware of.
—News 8 photojournalist Nick Ponton contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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