Inside the Lawsuits Challenging SEVIS Terminations—and Succeeding

At least 290 international students or recent graduates who had their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records terminated by the federal government are fighting that decision across 65 lawsuits.

They are hoping to get those terminations reversed and return to their work or studies, and many have been successful, securing at least a temporary reprieve.

The individuals represented in the lawsuits come from across the country and range from undergraduate students to postgraduates who are working under Optional Practical Training, which allows F-1 students to stay in the U.S. and work in a position that relates to their degree for a period of time after they graduate. At least 14 of the plaintiffs, but possibly more, were slated to graduate in the next six months until a SEVIS termination interrupted their studies.

The plaintiffs are among the thousands of students whose records in SEVIS, a database of information about international students studying in the U.S., were quietly and unexpectedly terminated by the federal government in recent weeks. The unprecedented terminations, which came amid the Trump administration’s broader attacks on immigrants, have sparked outrage and confusion alike from international students—some of whom have voluntarily left the country because they believed they were required to, though the government has indicated otherwise in court filings.

So far, many of the suits have been successful; judges have granted temporary restraining orders in over 35 lawsuits, in most cases requiring the government to revert the plaintiffs’ SEVIS status back to “active,” refrain from further changing their SEVIS status or lawful nonimmigrant status, and agree not to take the plaintiffs into custody if they haven’t already.

In their decisions, several judges have agreed that forcing students to halt their studies midsemester due to SEVIS terminations qualifies as “irreparable harm”—one of the qualifications for granting a TRO—even as the government continues to claim in court filings and hearings that the impacted students can simply study or work in other countries.

“Plaintiff is in the middle of the semester, for which he has already paid $17,739.23 in tuition. He is at imminent risk of being forced to drop his courses for this semester, and he is at risk of being prevented from registering for classes for next semester, as the university cannot allow him to proceed with his studies without an active student status on the SEVIS system,” wrote Patrick J. Schiltz, chief U.S. district judge for the District of Minnesota, in an order granting a University of Minnesota student a temporary restraining order. “Broadly, plaintiff faces the loss of the many years and many thousands of dollars he has invested in pursuing his degree.”

A list of the lawsuits that have been filed can be found below, including information about the plaintiffs and where they are studying. (This information was not available for all cases, as the filings in some were under seal or unavailable digitally.)

Almost all of these lawsuits hinge on the Administrative Procedure Act, a 1946 statute that governs federal government agencies, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security does not have the authority to terminate SEVIS records. Traditionally, according to various immigration attorneys and experts who have spoken with Inside Higher Ed, a student’s record in SEVIS would be terminated by the institution they attend.

They also argue that the government has violated international students’ right to due process by terminating their SEVIS records without giving them prior notice or a chance to respond.

The largest case filed so far represents 133 individuals nationwide and is among those that have been granted a TRO. Charles Kuck, the Georgia attorney leading the case, said that the government has followed the order and restored all 133 plaintiffs’ SEVIS statuses to active. Knowing that they won’t be detained or have their studies interrupted—at least until the TRO expires next Thursday—has been a weight off his clients’ shoulders, he said.

“These students are not worried, they’re not scared to go out of their apartments. They can go back to school, they can go back to work. So their life is quasi back to normal,” he said. “But this leaves an impression. If you’ve been slapped upside the head, you’re going to remember you were slapped upside the head.”

A hearing today will decide if the plaintiffs in that case will be granted a preliminary injunction, which functions like a TRO but lasts for the duration of a case, while a TRO covers only a brief period.

The government has defended its actions in court documents and in hearings by arguing that terminating a student’s SEVIS status is not equivalent to changing their lawful nonimmigrant status and that a student’s SEVIS records being terminated does not mean they must leave the country.

But historically, when an institution terminated a student’s visa status, that student was required to leave the country, according to DHS’s own guidance on the subject. Moreover, according to court filings, many students whose visas were terminated were told by their universities that they should stop working and make plans to leave the U.S.

This has raised questions about what the government is trying to achieve by terminating SEVIS records if not to force students out of the country—including from judges presiding over these cases. One federal judge in Washington, D.C., asked the federal government to submit a brief explaining why the government terminated the plaintiff’s SEVIS status, the government’s legal authority for changing the plaintiff’s SEVIS status and what the effect of a terminated SEVIS status is if their F-1 status remains intact.

In another ruling granting a TRO to a student in Ohio, the judge wrote that the federal government, when presented with DHS’s guidance on SEVIS terminations, “ultimately conceded, as they must, that termination of the SEVIS record could lead to the revocation of the F-1 status, which could ultimately lead to deportation—an outcome that the Supreme Court has recognized as ‘a drastic measure, often amounting to lifelong banishment or exile.’”

TROs have only been denied in two of the cases reviewed by Inside Higher Ed; in one case, the judge, James Patrick Hanlon, U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Indiana and a Trump appointee, argued that the harms the plaintiffs feared, such as being deported, were merely “speculative.” Hanlon also said that the plaintiffs failed to explain how other consequences of the SEVIS terminations, like losing out on summer jobs and academic awards, would cause irreparable harm.

For those still seeking TROs, the success other students have had is promising, but the wait for the court’s intervention is still challenging, attorneys representing international students say.

Three graduates in Illinois who are working under postcompletion OPT have either been put on leave or terminated, causing them to lose their income and their ability to support themselves and their families.

“It’s pretty hard for them mentally and financially. One of the clients has a newborn daughter,” said Yilun Hu, one of the attorneys representing the Illinois graduates.