Four students at Michigan public universities in the US, including one Indian, have filed a lawsuit against their possible deportation after their student immigration status was terminated “unlawfully”. Chinmay Deore from India, Xiangyun Bu and Qiuyi Yang from China, and Yogesh Joshi from Nepal filed the lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and immigration officials.
The students claimed that their student immigration status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) was illegally terminated "without sufficient notice and explanation". SELVIS is a database that tracks information about nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors in the US.
Who is Chinmay Deore?
Deore first entered the United States with his family on an H-4 dependent visa in 2004. He and his family left the country in 2008 and returned in 2014. After completing his high school in Michigan, the 21-year-old enrolled at Wayne State University and has been pursuing a computer science degree there since August 2021.
Deore in May 2022 lawfully applied for and was granted permission to transition to F-1 student status when he was ageing out of his H-4 status. Deore anticipates completing his course of study and graduating in May 2025, and at present lives with his immediate family in Canton.
What is the lawsuit against Trump administration?
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, which is representing the students, on Thursday, said they "filed a federal lawsuit along with a request for an emergency injunction on behalf of the students who had their F-1 student immigration status unlawfully and abruptly terminated by the Trump administration for no valid reason and without notice".
"The lawsuit asks the court to reinstate the status of these students so that they will be able to complete their studies and avoid facing the risk of detention and deportation," it said.
"DHS did not provide the students or their schools any meaningful explanation for terminating their F-1 student status," the complaint said, adding, "At most, what seems to connect students targeted by this newfound and unlawful policy is that the students had some encounter with some American law enforcement official at some point in the past, no matter how innocuous -- including receiving a speeding or parking ticket (or even a warning) or lawfully withdrawing an application to enter the United States."
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration's immigration crackdown strikes higher education, prompting a plethora of lawsuits against White House officials.