A lawsuit filed in New Hampshire late Friday aims to present a sweeping legal challenge to the Trump administration's campaign targeting international students and academics.
Lawyers asked a federal judge to certify a lawsuit brought by foreign students whose visas were canceled as a class action.
Cases of international students being detained by masked immigration agents over violations cited by the Trump administration that many individual rights groups have described as protected speech have sparked widespread outrage. But most have been challenged in individual lawsuits.
The lawsuit filed in New Hampshire casts a wider net, intending to stop similar detentions and deportation efforts for students in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico. It also asks the court to reinstate the student visas that have been terminated.
In recent weeks, immigration agencies have rapidly stepped up efforts to punish international students studying in the United States, in many cases because of their involvement in pro-Palestinian protests related to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In some instances, the lawyers of detained students have described the use of aggressive tactics and students being moved hundreds of miles to detention facilities in Louisiana.
Hundreds of students have been swept up in the deportation campaign. Among those whose cases have drawn national attention are Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University; Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States who studied at Columbia University; and Momodou Taal, a British-Gambian doctoral student at Cornell University. Their cases have also prompted pushback from legal groups over what they say is a threat to campus speech.
The new lawsuit challenges those arrests as an arbitrary overreach by immigration officials and a violation of students' due process rights.
In moving to deport the students, the Trump administration has used charged rhetoric. In several cases it has argued that by expressing support for pro-Palestinian demonstrations -- sometimes only indirectly -- the students' presence in the United States amounted to a national security threat. Officials have routinely referred to student visas as a privilege that can be revoked at any time and have characterized the students as supporters of "pro-jihadist protests" and terrorism.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five students from China and India. It did not specify what rationale was given for their visas being terminated.
"These terminations -- across the board -- flout the applicable regulations governing student status termination and the regulations governing failure to maintain student status," it said.
The lawsuit lists an array of harms facing students studying on a visa, including imminent detention and deportation, and loss of their progress toward a degree or graduate research. It noted that as of a week ago, the four states involved and Puerto Rico have collectively seen at least 112 people whose student statuses were terminated.
It asked a federal judge to issue a ruling to block the Trump administration from carrying out future detentions and deportations of any student across the nearly 200 accredited colleges and universities in the states involved.
Lawyers asked a federal judge to certify a lawsuit brought by foreign students whose visas were canceled as a class action.
Cases of international students being detained by masked immigration agents over violations cited by the Trump administration that many individual rights groups have described as protected speech have sparked widespread outrage. But most have been challenged in individual lawsuits.
The lawsuit filed in New Hampshire casts a wider net, intending to stop similar detentions and deportation efforts for students in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico. It also asks the court to reinstate the student visas that have been terminated.
In recent weeks, immigration agencies have rapidly stepped up efforts to punish international students studying in the United States, in many cases because of their involvement in pro-Palestinian protests related to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In some instances, the lawyers of detained students have described the use of aggressive tactics and students being moved hundreds of miles to detention facilities in Louisiana.
Hundreds of students have been swept up in the deportation campaign. Among those whose cases have drawn national attention are Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University; Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States who studied at Columbia University; and Momodou Taal, a British-Gambian doctoral student at Cornell University. Their cases have also prompted pushback from legal groups over what they say is a threat to campus speech.
The new lawsuit challenges those arrests as an arbitrary overreach by immigration officials and a violation of students' due process rights.
In moving to deport the students, the Trump administration has used charged rhetoric. In several cases it has argued that by expressing support for pro-Palestinian demonstrations -- sometimes only indirectly -- the students' presence in the United States amounted to a national security threat. Officials have routinely referred to student visas as a privilege that can be revoked at any time and have characterized the students as supporters of "pro-jihadist protests" and terrorism.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five students from China and India. It did not specify what rationale was given for their visas being terminated.
"These terminations -- across the board -- flout the applicable regulations governing student status termination and the regulations governing failure to maintain student status," it said.
The lawsuit lists an array of harms facing students studying on a visa, including imminent detention and deportation, and loss of their progress toward a degree or graduate research. It noted that as of a week ago, the four states involved and Puerto Rico have collectively seen at least 112 people whose student statuses were terminated.
It asked a federal judge to issue a ruling to block the Trump administration from carrying out future detentions and deportations of any student across the nearly 200 accredited colleges and universities in the states involved.
You may also like
Georgia district court provides interim relief: Blocks termination of legal status of 133 international students
Will submit report to Centre on Murshidabad, also take up the issue with CM Mamata: Bengal Guv
NDA bags over 320 panchayat seats uncontested in Assam
BREAKING: Max Verstappen takes Saudi Grand Prix pole as Lando Norris fumes after high-speed crash
Avesh Khan's Heroics Lead Lucknow Super Giants to Narrow Victory Over Rajasthan Royals
