Federal court halts Homeland Security's attempt to remove two Montana graduate students
The Russell Smith Courthouse, the Missoula Division of the U.S. District Court of Montana. (Photo by Blair Miller)
A federal judge has granted an emergency restraining order which will prevent U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting two Montana State University graduate students who were notified that their status as foreign students was being revoked.
Montana University System officials reported last week that at least four students in the state had their F-1 visas revoked and their F-1 status terminated. Each of the students say that the federal government was revoking their status, even though the students had not been notified, had not been convicted of a crime, and had not received notice of the change. Two of the students, both graduate-level students in Bozeman have challenged the decision in federal court and are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana.
In an emergency motion filed Monday, the ACLU claims that the students learned of the status change as the university system was handling routine status checks. The federal government, through Noem, didn't just eliminate their F-1 visa, which allow a student to enter the country; the department cancelled their entire F-1 status, meaning that the students could deported at any time.
One student in the Montana lawsuit is a doctoral student in electrical engineering, the other is a master's level student in microbiology. Both are reportedly set to graduate from their programs during 2025.
In an emergency ruling on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Dana L. Christensen found that the case was similar to one in New Hampshire in which the court also found that the federal government had not followed its own procedures for revoking the status, and violated a number of due-process protections, which allows a student to challenge the decision before an independent court.
Attorneys for the federal government have not made their appearance to defend the Trump administration's decision, but Christensen noted in his ruling on Tuesday afternoon that attorneys for the ACLU had been trying to get a response from the U.S. District Attorney's Office in Montana.
'As of the date of this order, defendants have not responded to plaintiffs' motion,' Christensen noted in his order.
The temporary restraining order says that officials must restore the students' status and must not initiate deportation proceedings for two weeks. It also stops Homeland Security from ordering their 'arrest, detention or transfer' from Montana without proper notice and a chance for attorneys to contest the action.
Christensen set a court hearing for the matter on April 29 in Missoula, and ordered the federal government to respond by then.
'The court finds that the plaintiffs are likely succeed on the allegation that (Homeland Security's) termination of (their) F-1 student status … is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, contrary to constitutional right, contrary to law, and in excess of statutory jurisdiction,' Christensen said.
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