Atlanta firm files lawsuit on behalf of 17 people whose student visas were canceled by ICE, including 7 with Georgia ties
“An Atlanta law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of 17 students, including seven from Georgia, whose student visas were revoked by ICE. The suit claims the visa terminations were unlawful and violated the students’ due process rights, as the grounds cited by ICE did not provide legal authority for the terminations. The suit seeks to declare the terminations unlawful and vacate the visa terminations.
According to the suit, the plaintiffs include one Kennesaw State, two Georgia Tech and two UGA students, and two more who are part of postgrad training program.
ATLANTA — An Atlanta law firm is filing a lawsuit on behalf of 17 people whose student visas were revoked by ICE.
11Alive obtained a copy of the suit from Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck and his firm Kuck Baxter.
The suit represents 17 unnamed students, but lists their school affiliations and current residences. They include one Kennesaw State, two Georgia Tech and two University of Georgia students, and two more (one affiliated with Emory University and another affiliated with Georgia Tech) who are part of postgrad training program.
In the instances of the seven Georgia-affiliated visa holders, all believed their visas were revoked in connection to citations (mostly traffic offenses) or arrests with charges that were either dismissed or, the suit argues, were not crimes for which people can be deported.
Of those seven, five are Chinese citizens, one is from India and one is from Colombia.
The student from Colombia, the suit says, is a D1 athlete with a 4.0 GPA who was arrested on a domestic violence charge that she later had dismissed "because there was no underlying proof of any crime." She is "highly valued by her college, which desires for her to continue to be enrolled in school."
The other 10 people span schools including Duke, Cornell, North Carolina State, Arizona State and Saint Louis University, with residences including Texas, New York and California.
The suit comes after both Emory and UGA acknowledged students or postgrad training program participants affiliated with their schools had visas canceled — though based on the affiliations listed, this new suit doesn't represent all the students included in reports last week.
The suit asserts the individuals' Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (SEVIS) records were "abruptly and unlawfully terminated" by ICE, "stripping them of their ability to pursue their students and maintain employment in the United States and risking their arrest, detention and deportation."
SEVIS, according to the suit, is a government system that tracks student visa compliance, and that ICE terminated the 17 records for the people included in the lawsuit by changing their status within the system to "OTHER — Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked. SEVIS record has been terminated" or "Otherwise Failing to Maintain Status."
"The grounds cited by ICE in the SEVIS terminations do not provide legal authority to terminate Plaintiffs' SEVIS record," the suit argues. "An F-1 visa controls a student's entry into the country, not their continued lawful presence once admitted. Plaintiffs were in full compliance with the terms of their F-1 status and had not engaged in any conduct that would warrant the termination of their status."
The suit further argues these actions appear to be "designed to coerce students, including each Plaintiff, into abandoning their studies and 'self-deporting' despite not violating their status." It says the Fifth Amendment due process rights of the visa holders have been violated by the government because they were not provided a "detailed basis for such termination founded in law, nor a period to respond and rebut the termination."
The suit is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta to declare the termination of the SEVIS records unlawful and to vacate the termination of the student visas.
It named as defendants Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sec. of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Acting Director of ICE Todd Lyons.
A motion for a temporary restraining order and expedited preliminary injunction was filed in the case.”
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