Student who earned Ph.D. while DHS tried to deport her over minor traffic violation is granted injunction
An international student in South Dakota, who earned two degrees amid her fight against the Trump administration's attempt to deport her, has been granted injunction.
Priya Saxena, who's from India, received a doctorate in chemical and biological engineering and a master's in chemical engineering from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology this past weekend. Just over a month ago, Saxena had been notified that her visa and status in the country had been revoked.
Saxena's attorney, Jim Leach, told NBC News that her sole infraction was for a failure-to-yield to an emergency vehicle from four years ago, which he described as 'the lowest possible traffic offense.'
Saxena, who sued the Trump administration, was granted a temporary restraining order until the end of this week, allowing her to collect her degrees. And on Thursday morning, she was granted a preliminary injunction that keeps the government from attempting to detain or deport her.
'The rule of law saved an innocent person from unlawful action by this administration,' Leach said. 'Dr. Saxena is exactly the kind of person we should want in this country.'
'The government sent these letters, no matter what the conviction was, even for a traffic conviction,' Leach said of Saxena's visa and status revocations. 'I've had more traffic convictions since then than she has.'
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.
Saxena had been in the country on a student visa that wasn't set to expire until 2027. But on April 7, she received an email from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, notifying her that her visa had been revoked, according to court documents.
She was later told by a school official that her record had been terminated in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which maintains information about nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors.
While Saxena received the traffic infraction in 2021, she paid a fine and, upon applying for her most recent visa, disclosed the information to the government, the court documents said.
'The government reissued her visa and then comes back three and a half years later and says, 'Oh, wait a minute. Get out of the country now,'' Leach said. 'It just makes no sense.'
Because of her loss of status, her school at the time also notified her that she would not be able to receive her Ph.D. degree, which she had been working toward since 2020, as scheduled this year, court documents said.
While the Trump administration said last month that it would be restoring international students' legal statuses until Immigration and Customs Enforcement crafts a new framework for terminations, Leach said Saxena's status was not impacted as ICE had to abide by the judge's orders in her case. However the judge granted the temporary restraining order last month, extending the timeframe so she could complete her studies.
Saxena's graduation coincided with a separate, highly controversial graduation that weekend. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem received an honorary degree at Dakota State University. Protesters gathered at the school to criticize the treatment of international students and the administration's hard-line immigration policies.
'You have this woman from India who earned a Ph.D. degree in chemical and biological engineering, which obviously takes an incredible amount of work and brains,' Leach said. 'Then you have Kristi Noem receiving an honorary degree for something. And she dodges the protesters while she's there … It was something out of a really far-out novel.'
DHS last month revealed in a court hearing in Washington that it used 10 to 20 employees to run the names of 1.3 million foreign-born students through the National Crime Information Center, an FBI-run computerized index that includes criminal history information.
The process, overseen by DHS acting executive director Robert Hammer, populated 6,400 hits, Andre Watson, assistant director of DHS said. And from there, many students experienced terminations of their records in SEVIS.
Names were also sent to the State Department, and roughly 3,000 students had their visas revoked, Watson said during the hearing.
The development has drawn criticism from immigration attorneys and legal advocates, who point out that the National Crime Information Center may not have the most up-to-date information. The index relies on cities, counties, states and other sources to voluntarily report their data.
Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an attorney and policy analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute previously mentioned that the database doesn't always have the final dispositions of cases. And others have mentioned that this is perhaps why students who've had cases dismissed or were not convicted have experienced a loss of status.
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NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
How a city in Nebraska is recovering after the state's largest worksite immigration raid
Immigration The city of Omaha is trying to forge ahead following the raid's chilling effect on the local workforce and the community at large. June 15, 2025, 6:00 AM EDT By Nicole Acevedo OMAHA, Nebraska — Every seat in the waiting area of Glenn Valley Foods was occupied with people filling out job applications early Thursday afternoon, two days after the meatpacking plant became the center of the largest worksite immigration raid in the state of Nebraska so far this year. Dozens of prospective employees, many of them Spanish speakers, had been coming in and out of the plant all day. Some were hoping to land a new job; others were coming in for training. The scene gave the company's president, Chad Hartmann, a glimmer of hope amid the chaos that ensued after Tuesday's raid purged roughly half of his staff — many of whom had been longtime employees of the company, which has been processing boxed beef for more than 15 years. Hartmann had never seen or experienced a raid before. He is finding out in real time that 'there's no playbook' on how to move forward after one, Hartmann told NBC News. The process of re-hiring new workers, Hartmann said, feels like asking someone to replace a family member. 'You cannot, in my mind,' he said. 'They were part of our family, and they were taken away.' Seventy-six people working at Glenn Valley Foods were arrested by federal immigration authorities Tuesday morning, the Department of Homeland Security told NBC News in an email. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the arrests were part of an enforcement operation to execute a federal search warrant in connection to an investigation into ' the large-scale employment of aliens without legal work authorization.' As of Friday night, criminal charges had not been filed against those arrested in the raid. About a dozen of them have already been deported or transferred out of state. At least 63 others were taken to the Lincoln County Detention Center. The county's sheriff, Jerome Kramer, said none of the detainees are 'violent offenders' and he hopes to help them 'complete the process to correct their work status and reunite them with families or employers.' Samantha Santiago, who owns a business selling accessories in South Omaha's predominantly Latino business district, said many of the detained people were her customers. 'There are just too many families who were affected,' she said in Spanish, adding that some of people in the community canceled " quinceañeras" and baptisms planned for this weekend because 'the sadness is too deep.' The raid happened on the same week John Ewing officially took office as the first Black mayor of Omaha. Ewing, a Democrat, defeated Republican incumbent Jean Stothert in last month's election. At the same time, anti-ICE demonstrations have been raging across the nation in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and Philadelphia — protesting the tactics being used when conducting raids and immigration enforcement actions. 'It's a collective effort, as a community, to both mourn together and also try to find solutions together for everybody,' Douglas County Commissioner Roger Garcia, the first Latino to occupy that position, told NBC News. Douglas County, where Omaha is located, is one of just two counties in Nebraska that went blue during the 2024 presidential election. The state as a whole is largely considered a Republican stronghold. Nevada Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, issued a statement in support of the raids and signed a proclamation Friday to activate the National Guard as a precautionary measure ' in anticipation of anti-ICE protests ' this weekend. In a news conference Wednesday, Ewing said that he does not support workplace raids and Omaha police would not, as a normal course of business, ask people about their immigration status. The dueling points showcase the source of nationwide tensions as Americans grapple with President Donald Trump's actions to fulfill his campaign promise of mass deportations. On Friday, over 500 people protesting Omaha's immigration raids peacefully marched to Charles Schwab Field, where the College World Series — the city's biggest sporting event — was kicking off. 'It is big for tourism in Omaha,' Juan Elizondo, one of the protest's lead organizers, told NBC News. 'The nation here with us — being there present, and letting them hear us, I think is more impactful.' A diverse crowd of demonstrators, from children and young people to older adults, were mostly dressed in white to show peace, though a handful of them even dressed in work uniforms to symbolize immigrants' contributions. Most of them held signs, upside down American flags signaling distress and Latin American flags to represent some of the people's heritage. Dozens of other people driving by honked at the demonstrators and placed flags outside their car windows to show support. The march marked the first time Elizondo, 32, had organized a protest. As an Omaha native and a son of Mexican immigrants, Elizondo said, he felt compelled to step up after he saw that the main message of the protests across the nation was being marred by instances of violence. 'This is definitely an extreme moment in the community,' he said. 'It's gotten a lot more political.' Reeling from the aftermath News of the ICE raid this week sent a crippling, chilling effect across the city. The local library and community college closed early on Tuesday. Construction sites and other workplaces have been desolate. South Omaha's business district, known as a vibrant Hispanic and immigrant enclave, shut down immediately after the raid. 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They said this weekend tends to be busy for the business, but many of their immigrant customers were not coming in because they were still afraid to be out in public following the raid. Santiago was back at her store Friday after taking a couple of days to process what was happening around her. During those two days, Santiago said she would cry unprompted 'every five minutes.' To find comfort, she went to church and prayed. Scrolling on social media, Santiago saw GoFundMe pages, raffles and other efforts to raise funds for the families affected by the raids. She said some are struggling to afford legal fees and immigration attorneys as well as keep up with family expenses without their spouse's income. Looking for a way to help, Santiago had the idea to take a portion of the proceeds from her bestselling item — the popular Labubu dolls — and donate them to the affected families. Commissioner Garcia's family is among those directly impacted by the raids. 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Hartmann explained some of these jobs require rigorous safety training; 'it takes skilled people that take pride in what they do,' he said. The company's president said they have continuously used E-Verify as part of their hiring process. The system is operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration to let employers know if a prospective employee has legal authorization to work in the U.S. Every employee at Glenn Valley Foods, including those who were detained by ICE, has been approved through E-Verify, Hartmann said. When he told this to DHS during the raid, an agency official described the system they operate as flawed and easy to cheat. Now, as he hires a new workforce, Hartmann has no other alternative but to continue using E-Verify system to screen employees, he said. 'That system doesn't capture a solution if somebody's got a fake ID. That's what needs to be repaired.' Garcia said that limiting immigrants' ability to remain in the country legally is what often pushes people to 'borrow' or 'make up' false identifications. It is for the 'sole purpose of working and nothing else, because there has been no other way for them to adjust their status and work under their own proper name or identification.' 'But our comprehensive immigration reform efforts have not gone through yet, unfortunately. And it's still badly needed,' García said. In researching alternatives for E-Verify with guidance from Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., DHS and federal authorities, Hartmann said the options he was presented included temporary work visa programs such as H-1A — meant for industries dealing with workforce shortages — and H-2B, for nonagricultural jobs. But because these immigration programs are for seasonal workers, 'it doesn't fit our needs,' Hartmann said. Saying goodbye to workers every six months is 'not building a business.' 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The Guardian
a day ago
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Ice arrests of migrants with no criminal history surging under Trump
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The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Workers in UK need to embrace AI or risk being left behind, minister says
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