19-04-2025
Nixed student visas: Lawsuit filed on behalf of several international students enrolled at Utah colleges
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah (ACLU) has teamed with several local immigration attorneys in filing a lawsuit on behalf of nine international students in Utah whose SEVIS registration records were 'abruptly terminated without explanation'.
In a suit filed Friday, nine plaintiffs identified as 'John Doe' or 'Jane Doe' petitioned the U.S. District Court to allow them to continue their studies in Utah by reinstating them in the SEVIS registry.
The plaintiffs, according to the complaint, are using pseudonyms 'due to fear of retaliation by Defendants.'
'In the United States, everyone — no matter your immigration status — has a constitutional right to due process,' said Jason M. Groth, Legal Director at the ACLU of Utah, in a statement.
'To terminate an international student's SEVIS registration, the U.S. government must adhere to regulatory standards and provide basic due process, which it has failed to do — it's not just wrong, it's unlawful.
The students, Groth added, have constitutional and procedural protections 'that we seek to enforce with this lawsuit to ensure the government respects the rights of everyone.'
The defendants listed in the complaint include U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
SEVIS is the web-based system that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) uses to maintain information on international students enrolled in schools in the United States.
The termination of a SEVIS record 'effectively ends student status,' according to the court complaint.
'Upon SEVIS termination, the student instantly becomes out of status, losing all employment authorizations and student privileges,' the complaint added.
The plaintiffs in the suit are bringing action under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution (ensuring due process) and the Declaratory Judgment Act to challenge ICE's 'illegal termination of their SEVIS record.'
The plaintiffs are also seeking a temporary restraining order reinstating, among other things, their SEVIS registration and restoring their student status.
Friday's suit follows the high-profile news over the past couple of weeks of international college students across the country — including dozens in Utah — having their student visas revoked.
The students represented in Friday's complaint are from four countries: China, Nigeria, Mexico and Japan. They attend several local universities and colleges — including the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, BYU-Idaho and Ensign College.
ACLU of Utah staff attorney Tom Ford called the 'abrupt and unexplained' termination of the students' SEVIS registration 'profoundly concerning.'
'These students now face deportation or worse, placing their education and futures in jeopardy,' said Ford in the ACLU of Utah release.
'Coordinated attacks on due process are paving the way for the kind of tyrannical government our Constitution was meant to prevent — and the ACLU of Utah is taking action to stop that abuse of power and keep rights intact for all of us.'
Adam Crayk, an attorney representing one of the plaintiffs in Friday's suit, said the 'random and arbitrary termination' of SEVIS registration of international students in Utah and across the country violates Constitutional rights and the rule of law.
'The government has arbitrarily, without any good or valid reason, terminated their SEVIS registrations without providing them any avenue to seek review or procedural due process other than this lawsuit.'
Added immigration attorney Phillip Kuck: 'These students face irreparable harm if the courts do not correct the government's unlawful actions — including lost immigration status, lost education, lost diplomas, lost tuition, and lost jobs and careers.'
Friday's complaint added that the plaintiffs have been experiencing 'high levels of stress and anxiety' following the SEVIS terminations.
'They are unsure of what will happen to them,' the complaint said. 'They also fear being labeled a national security or foreign policy threat if they seek to return to the United States in the future, or if they seek to travel to another country, because of the labels attached to their SEVIS terminations.'
Earlier this week, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said his office has reached out to the Trump administration to collect updates on the dozens of students at Utah campuses who have recently had their visa revoked.
'We've asked them to give us a little bit of a heads-up when these things are happening. We'd like to understand better what the criteria are for those changes,' Cox said Thursday.
The governor noted that some of the international students had criminal backgrounds 'that we were not aware of; that the universities were not aware of.'
For other impacted students, he added, 'that does not appear to be the case — and so we would very much like to figure that out.'
While almost all of Utah's degree-granting colleges have reported visa revocations among their international student population, similar situations are being reported at higher education institutions across the country.
Authorities had revoked the visas of international students in at least 32 states, according to NBC News analysis.
Officials, according to NBC News, are largely citing a seldom-used 1952 foreign policy statute to take aim at their activism. Others' visas have been terminated seemingly for past charges like DUIs.
The State Department directed NBC News to comments spokesperson Tammy Bruce made earlier this week at a media briefing.
'We don't discuss individual visas because of the privacy issues involved,' Bruce said. 'What we can tell you is that the department revokes visas every day in order to secure our borders and to keep our community safe.'
The Department of Homeland Security recently created a task force that uses data analytic tools to scour international students' social media histories for potential grounds to revoke their visas, three sources familiar with the operation previously told NBC News.
The sources also said that the task force is searching for charges and criminal convictions on students' records as well.
