WASHINGTON : The legal action, initially filed by 17 students in Georgia on April 11, has since drawn 116 more students from various universities nationwide. The lawsuit claims that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency illegally terminated students’ status in the government-run Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), without clear reasons or due process.
The revocations, according to court documents, have left many scrambling to understand why their legal status was canceled, with no prior warning. The complaint, which avoids naming the students due to fear of retaliation, paints a picture of arbitrary enforcement. Each plaintiff offers a possible explanation for their targeting—ranging from minor traffic violations to dismissed criminal charges.
One example cited is a Chinese doctoral student at Georgia Tech, who was informed of his visa revocation after an unspecified criminal records check, possibly linked to a closed traffic offense. Another case involves an Indian student at the New York Institute of Technology, who had been acquitted in a shoplifting case that was dismissed, yet still faced visa cancellation.
The lawsuit names high-profile federal officials as defendants, including US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. It calls for the reinstatement of the students’ visas and criticizes the broader immigration crackdown under the Trump administration that has increasingly targeted foreign students.
