Rutgers international students sue feds over revoked status

Yahoo

22-04-2025

The students say the changed status immediately makes them vulnerable to arrest, detention, and deportation. (Daniella Heminghaus for New Jersey Monitor)
Five international Rutgers University students and a recent graduate of the state school are suing the federal government for abruptly terminating their records in student visa status database, saying it has upended their lives and left in doubt whether they can remain in the United States.
In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, the students say the effective termination of their F-1 student status bars them from working, stops them from continuing their studies and immediately makes them vulnerable to arrest, detention and deportation.
'I am afraid to leave my home out of fear that I will be detained. I feel that I am in a home prison,' one of the students said, according to Tuesday's filing (it does not identify them by name).
At the center of the dispute is the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, a federal database that colleges and universities use to track students' compliance with their immigration status and share that information, like address and educational progress, with federal officials.
The 42-page complaint claims the federal government purged more than 1,000 SEVIS records since Jan. 20 — the day President Donald Trump took office for his second term — effectively putting an end to the student status and the benefits that come with it. The complaint names U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as defendants.
The students are seeking a temporary restraining order that would prohibit the government from arresting, detaining or deporting them while the case is active. The risk these students face of detention is 'currently very serious,' the attorneys wrote, pointing to others whose F-1 visas were revoked and were subsequently arrested by ICE.
Jessica Rofé, director of the Constitutional Rights Clinic at Rutgers and an assistant law professor, is one of the plaintiffs' attorneys.
'The abrupt termination of their SEVIS records and status without meaningful process or justification in an attempt to coerce them to hastily depart upends their academic and career trajectories, disrupts our communities, and is an affront to due process,' Rofé said in a statement.
More than 23,000 international students attended New Jersey colleges in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Institute of International Education. New Jersey ranks 17th in the country for accepting international students, who spent nearly $1 billion last year.
Getting a visa or protected status is a complicated process, with confusing forms to fill out and several requirements to fulfill to remain in good standing. An F-1 visa grants a student the status to remain in the United States as long as they're studying or on a temporary work assignment, and are compliant with the law. Students can lose their status by failing classes or doing unauthorized work.
When ICE terminates a record in the system, that student is no longer protected. People can apply for reinstatement, but there is no way to appeal the SEVIS status change.
Rutgers, Rowan, and Montclair State universities have seen roughly two dozen students notified of their visa status termination, according to NJ Spotlight News. Inside Higher Ed reported that more than 1,680 students nationwide have been notified of their SEVIS termination.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March that he began revoking the visas of students and visitors if 'they're taking activities that are counter to our foreign, to our national interest, to our foreign policy.' He said visa holders charged with a crime should automatically lose their status. It's part of the Trump administration's overarching plan to mass detain and deport undocumented residents and some people with legal status, particularly going after those connected to pro-Palestinian protests at universities.
The attorneys representing the Rutgers plaintiffs — the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey Foundation, the Rutgers Immigrant Community Assistance Project and Gibbons P.C. —noted they haven't been charged with crimes or done anything to fall out of standing when ICE closed their records.
They charge that the misuse of SEVIS is key to the Trump administration's plan to circumvent the law and 'drive international students out of the country without due process and in violation of DHS regulations.' And if the government believes that students are deportable, the proceedings should take place in immigration court, the complaint states.
The lawsuit describes a sweeping task force created within the Department of Homeland Security using data-mining tools to analyze the social media of 1.5 million students in attempts to deport them on charges that ordinarily would not be justified. It also alleges that students from China and India are being disproportionately targeted.
Without work authorization, the plaintiffs say they are unable to pay their expenses and face losing their homes. One student said they'd run out of money within two months, and another said they have a family abroad that relies on them for financial support.
Tuesday's filing is the latest in a flood of lawsuits from students fighting the termination of their status. In New Hampshire, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to reverse the status of a Dartmouth student from China whose status was revoked.
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