ICE used database terminations to pressure international students to “self-deport,” attorney claims

This story has been updated with additional information.

Seventeen international students in the U.S. filed a federal lawsuit Friday, April 11, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) terminated their records in a federal database that tracks international students’ compliance with their immigration status, revoking their student visas and creating a risk that these students may be arrested, detained, or deported. By Wednesday, April 16, the number of student-plaintiffs had increased to 133, including 43 from Georgia.

Attorneys Charles H. Kuck and Danielle M. Claffey of the Kuck Baxter law firm filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. 

The plaintiffs requested a temporary restraining order to ensure students are not deported while the lawsuit to reinstate their records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database continues. U.S. District Court Judge Victoria M Calvert granted an expedited hearing on the restraining order. During a press conference after the hearing, Kuck anticipated the judge would issue a ruling after midnight Friday.

A second hearing is scheduled for Thursday, April 24, for a preliminary injunction to restore the students’ SEVIS records permanently.

In a video update posted to his X (formerly Twitter) account Wednesday, Kuck estimated that 5,000-7,000 international students have had their SEVIS records terminated. As of Wednesday morning, the news outlet Inside Higher Ed tracked over 1,300 confirmed instances of student visa revocations.

The plaintiffs in the complaint were identified as Jane or John Does due to concerns about retaliation from ICE, the Attorney General, and the Department of Homeland Security.

The SEVIS terminations are one of the latest actions in a string of anti-immigrant moves by the Trump administration. Unlike the high-profile arrests and detention of student visa holders and green card residents like Rumeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil for political speech, the student-plaintiffs terminated from SEVIS largely appear to have no history of the kind of political speech under attack by the Trump administration. 

“They are trying to circumvent the law, and they are trying to drive these students out of the county without due process,” said Nazia Khanzada, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Georgia communications director.

The plaintiffs include students from Kennesaw State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, and the University of Georgia. Most plaintiffs come from China and India. Other countries of origin include Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, South Korea, Nigeria, Nepal, Ghana, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Japan and France. Most are studying in STEM or business programs. 

Lawsuit alleges ICE targets students over minor or non-existent offenses 

Noncitizens can be admitted to the U.S. through an F-1 visa and may remain if they maintain a full course of study and do not engage in unauthorized employment. Once their studies are complete, they may apply to remain for another one to three years to work in their respective fields of study. 

ICE uses the SEVIS database to track whether students follow the terms of their visas. Then colleges and universities report through SEVIS whether a student meets or has failed to maintain their status requirements. International students pay a $100 one-time fee to the U.S. government administering the SEVIS system.

DHS can terminate a student’s status in limited circumstances. One of those circumstances is if the student is convicted of a violent crime that carries a possible sentence of a year or longer. The complaint notes that no plaintiffs fall into this category or any other circumstance under which ICE can terminate a SEVIS record. 

Between April 1 and April 10, the student-plaintiffs received notice from their academic institutions that their SEVIS records had been terminated, and in some cases, their F-1 student visas had been revoked. According to the complaint, the reason given for each record termination was “identified in criminal records check and/or has had their visa revoked.”

These students, Kuck said, largely do not fall into this category. 

The complaint alleges that ICE removed the SEVIS records “to coerce students … into abandoning their studies and ‘self-deporting’ despite not violating their [visa] status.”

Most of the plaintiffs have been charged with traffic violations in the past. One, the complaint says, “was never arrested nor cited for any traffic violations.” Two others had minor charges that they disclosed while obtaining their visas. Some charges have been dismissed, or the student was found not guilty. 

Kuck has done intakes with other students who are potential future co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The vast majority of impacted students have no serious criminal history. 

“So far, out of the hundreds of intakes we have done,” Kuck wrote on X, “only 1 appears to be a legitimate termination.”