President Donald Trump’s administration has until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to reinstate the legal statuses of 133 international students, according to an order granting temporary restraining orders on behalf of those plaintiffs filed in a U.S. District Court in Georgia on April 18.
The federal judge overseeing the case, Victoria M. Calvert, issued a TRO requested on behalf of students, all of whom claimed their student statuses had been unlawfully revoked.
The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU and other groups in the Northern District of Georgia, is among several that claim Immigration and Customs Enforcement “abruptly and unlawfully” terminated records on the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a database that the Department of Homeland Security uses to monitor non-immigrant students.
A Department of Homeland Security seal on a podium at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters, Mar. 13, 2024.
Luke Barr/ABC News
The lawsuit claimed that by terminating these records, ICE is ending a student’s status and making them deportable.
“DHS’s act of unlawfully terminating SEVIS records appears to be designed to coerce students, including each Plaintiff, into abandoning their studies and ‘self-deporting’ despite not violating their status,” the lawsuit said.
Some of the students represented in the lawsuit are nearing graduation or are enrolled in work programs.
Many of the plaintiffs had been charged with traffic violations, and in some cases minor misdemeanors, but later had their charges dropped. Others, including “Jane Doe #12,” have never been arrested or cited for any traffic violation.
Government lawyers had argued that granting any relief to the students would affect the executive branch’s “control over immigration.”
But the judge was not convinced — and ordered the administration to notify the court when it has complied. Calvert also ordered the government not to use the identities of the plaintiffs for any reason outside of the lawsuit.
A hearing is set for Thursday.
-ABC News’ Armando Garcia
