This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
The ACLU of Michigan announced Thursday they have filed a federal lawsuit and request for an emergency injunction on behalf of four international students who attend Michigan universities, two of which attend the University of Michigan, after their F-1 student visa statuses were revoked.
The plaintiffs include a masters student studying mechanical engineering at the University and a student who has been pursuing a doctorate degree at the School for Environment and Sustainability. The two other students attend Wayne State University.
According to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, none of the students have been charged or convicted of a crime in the United States, nor have they been active in any on-campus protests.
In its press release, the ACLU said President Donald Trump’s administration’s termination of international student visas at hundreds of universities across the country is a violation of the students’ rights to due process.
“International students form a vital community at our state’s universities, and unilaterally stripping students of their status violates the law,” the press release read. “The lawsuit details how the termination of F-1 student status violates the students’ due process rights because the government is required to provide advance notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond when taking such action.”
The lawsuit specifies that the students’ statuses had been terminated by the government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information Program without notifying them or their schools about the reasons behind the terminations.
Students learned of their status being terminated after they received an email from their respective universities.
“Instead of being notified by DHS or another government agency, Plaintiffs each received an email from their respective school informing them that the school learned during their periodic check of SEVIS records that the Plaintiff’s student status had been terminated,” the lawsuit read.
Daily News Editor Christina Zhang can be reached at zchristi@umich.edu.
