Washington: An Indian student and three others have sued the Donald Trump administration over possible deportation from the US after their student immigration status was terminated earlier this month.
The visas of hundreds of students, including several Indians, are being revoked by the US government on the charge of alleged campus activism. Emails have been sent to these students, asking them to self-deport.
India’s Chinmay Deore, who studies at Wayne State University, two students from China and one from Nepal filed the lawsuit against Homeland Security and immigration officials, asking for their legal status in the US to be restored, reported PTI.
The quartet has alleged that their student immigration status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) – which is the database containing information about non-immigrant students in the US — was ‘illegally terminated’ without any notice or explanation.
It means the students no longer have legal status in the US, and will have to leave the country immediately.
The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the students in the US District Court Eastern District of Michigan.
“At most, what seems to connect the students is that they had some encounter with some American law enforcement official at some point in the past, no matter how innocuous — including receiving a speeding or parking ticket (or even a warning) or lawfully withdrawing an application to enter the US,” the complaint stated.
A few days earlier, a US judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a 21-year-old Indian undergraduate by the name of Krish Lal Isserdasani, whose student visa was cancelled.
Among other ‘targets’ of the Trump administration are students accused of minor criminal offences like shoplifting or traffic violations.
