Lawsuit challenges Trump student visa cancellations in Indiana schools

An international student from Indianapolis is among seven who lost their visas after the U.S. government revoked their legal status, prompting the ACLU of Indiana to sue the Trump administration on their behalf.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court, claims the Department of Homeland Security violated the students’ Fifth Amendment due process rights by canceling their F-1 student visas without notice or a chance to respond.

Five of the plaintiffs study at Purdue and one at Indiana University Indianapolis. They each have Chinese citizenship. The other student is from Nigeria and studies at University of Notre Dame.

“The impact on these students’ lives is profound, and now they live in fear of being deported at any moment,” said ACLU’s legal director Ken Falk in a statement.

The Indianapolis student, Jelena Liu, is in her second year of a two-year graduate program at Indiana University Indianapolis. She is studying human-computer interactions.

Liu, a citizen of China, received F-1 status in 2016 to study for her undergraduate degree in Indianapolis.

“She is now extremely nervous about her future,” according to the lawsuit. “This is extremely disconcerting and has greatly exacerbated mental health conditions that she has.”

Liu is receiving medical care here she may not be able to get in her home country.

The federal government didn’t send notice to Liu and at least one other student, according to the complaint, leaving their universities to tell them about their visa status. The two students had no prior legal issues.

Universities informed the students of the change in status by email earlier this month.

“If you are currently employed, you are advised to cease employment immediately, and you are no longer legally authorized to continue your studies in the United States,” read a notice to one Purdue University student.

The U.S. embassy in Beijing also wrote to him that same day.

“Deportation can take place at a time that does not allow the person being deported to secure possessions or conclude affairs in the United States,” it said. “Persons being deported may be sent to countries other than their countries of origin.”

Some of the plaintiffs do have a legal history, but courts either dismissed charges or entered students into deferral programs, the complaint stated, and their situations do not violate visa requirements.

All plaintiffs are in good standing with their universities, according to the ACLU.

Some of the students are employed by their university or have future plans lined up, such as graduate school, a fellowship, or university employment. Two students are on track to graduate from their programs in May.

Losing visas would cut their access to these opportunities. Some have already paid thousands of dollars for the semester’s tuition.

Purdue spokesperson Trevor Peters directed WFYI to an April 9 statement, saying it “still stands.”

This comes as a Congressional probe is looking into Chinese students and staff at universities. The U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party requested information from Purdue’s president last month, citing national security concerns. The university later responded.

A spokesperson for Notre Dame said in a statement that it’s committed to its international students.

“The University has been in contact with all of our international students to alert them to resources available to them on campus, and we continue to monitor their situations closely,” it said. “Our international students, scholars, and their families, are important and vital members of our campus community, and we will continue working to ensure that they are welcomed and supported at Notre Dame.”

IU did not respond to a request for comment.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, the ACLU asked the court to reinstate the visas and issue a temporary restraining order to block immigration authorities from detaining or deporting the students.

Almost 1,300 students at more than 210 schools across the country have recently lost visas.

ACLU chapters in Michigan, Montana, and New Hampshire have filed lawsuits of their own contesting canceled student visas.

WFYI is reporting on the local impacts of immigration policy. If you want to share your story or have a tip, contact WFYI reporter Zak Cassel at zcassel@wfyi.org.