International students score nationwide win against Trump and ICE

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge on Thursday expanded a previous ruling against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, instituting a nationwide bar on arresting or deporting any international students nationwide whose immigration records were suddenly deleted by the agency in April.

“The actions that give rise to plaintiffs’ claims reflect an instinct that has become prevalent in our society to effectuate change: move fast and break things. That instinct must be checked when it conflicts with established principles of law,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White, a George W. Bush appointee, said in his order.

White also barred ICE from going back on its promise to reinstate the students’ immigration records without first obtaining the court’s approval.

The decision follows White’s previous decision a week earlier, where he granted relief for the 18 international students bringing lawsuits against the government over claimed violations of their due process rights and the federal Administrative Procedure Act, but held back from issuing a nationwide ruling. After a hearing, the judge took the issue of whether it would issue nationwide relief under consideration.

Now, after more than a week of reflection, the judge has issued this relief to international students across the country.

White said that without the ruling, the students were likely to suffer “irreparable harm” and that it’s possible ICE would abruptly re-terminate their immigration records. He also criticized the agency for offering a non-binding letter intended for school faculty explaining the students’ situation as a form of relief.

“Unlike the letter defendants intend to send, the relief the court grants provides plaintiffs with a measure of stability and certainty that they will be able to continue their studies or their employment without the threat of re-termination hanging over their heads,” White said.

In considering his decision, the judge also noted that when ICE started to reinstate students’ records in April, the agency initially took no position on whether the reinstatement would be retroactive, which could make would make it more difficult for the students to obtain a new visa or to change their nonimmigrant status. This, he said, was further evidence of a likely irreparable harm on the horizon.

The judge also said the students were likely to prevail on their claim that deleting their records was “arbitrary and capricious.” ICE insists that the terminations were the result of the students’ inclusion in the National Crime Information Center, a federal database used by law enforcement to track crime-related data.

White said that because this match with the NCIC data was the only factor in the terminations, the students have a good chance of succeeding on their claims.

White also rejected ICE’s arguments that the record terminations didn’t affect a student’s immigration status, stating that such claims were “unpersuasive” and “unsupported by the record.”

Lawyers for the international students celebrated the judge’s ruling.

“This is a first-of-its-kind order protecting hundreds (or possibly thousands) of students throughout the country from the devastating effects of the DHS’s unlawful en masse termination of SEVIS records. Those terminations were clearly arbitrary and capricious,” attorney Johnny Sinodis of Van Der Hout LLP, who represented the students, told Courthouse News via email.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which represented ICE, declined to comment on the ruling.

The judge’s order results from five different lawsuits filed by international students whose F-1 visas were impacted after ICE initiated an unprecedented wave of terminations.

Among the plaintiffs are four Chinese nationals attending university in the United States who sued ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, accusing the agencies of violating their constitutional rights and the Administrative Procedure Act by abruptly canceling their student visas without explanation or a way to appeal the decision.

“Without notice, explanation, or any form of due process, ICE terminated the student status of individuals who have done nothing more than maintaining academic standing and complying with their visa requirements,” the students said in their lawsuit.

The four students, who attend universities including Carnegie Mellon, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Cincinnati, are asking the court to restore their immigration records and F-1 visa statuses immediately, as well as those of affected foreign students nationwide.

“They have to abruptly suspend their studies (one of the plaintiffs is a month away from graduation), end housing arrangements or leases, lose employment authorization, face virtually insurmountable bars when re-entering the U.S. if they depart, and if they have any dependents, their dependents’ status is also terminated,” the students argue in their lawsuit.

While some students in the five related lawsuits admit they have been arrested in the past, they maintain they have never been convicted of a crime and have complied with the terms of their visas.

At a previous hearing, the students cited emails from the Department of State to thousands of students within 48 hours of their record terminations saying they had to leave the country.

“In fact, some of the students who were not coerced to self-deport were actually arrested,” Sinodis said at the hearing, adding that there are students currently in custody because their SEVIS was terminated and that ICE has filed to stay their release.

The students received some hope in late April when White extended their temporary restraining order, but it was a short-term solution that only prevented ICE from acting on their visa status until shortly after the next hearing.

More than 1,024 students at 160 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since March, according to The Associated Press.

This case was filed in the Northern District of California.