International students fight visa revocations and detentions in new federal lawsuits

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to temporarily restore the visas for five international graduates from Concordia University in St. Paul after the group filed a lawsuit challenging the termination of their student statuses.

The decision on Tuesday marks the latest small victory for the growing number of international students enrolled in Minnesota universities who are fighting their deportations in the courts.

In the past week, two judges issued separate orders requiring the federal government to temporarily reinstate student statuses for two international students after the men, from Metropolitan State University in St. Paul and the University of Minnesota, filed separate lawsuits.

Also, on Tuesday, a federal judge issued a temporary order preventing a detained Minnesota State University, Mankato student from being transferred out of the state.

Nationwide, international students have filed lawsuits and won small victories in Wisconsin, Oregon and Ohio. In one of the larger cases, a restraining order from a judge in Georgia on Friday halted the deportation of 133 students, after a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lawyers representing international students from across the country are seeing the same arguments made by the federal government, and have mostly been winning, said Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-based attorney who represented the 133 students.

“It’s literally the same thing over and over,” Kuck said on Wednesday, adding that he has not seen these court orders changing the federal government’s behavior.

In Minnesota, according to the lawsuit from the Concordia graduates, Salma Rameez Shaik, Akhil Pothuraju, Nithish Babu Challa, Shyam Vardhan Reddy Yarkareddy and Almas Abdul are Indian citizens and received their master’s degrees in information technology and management. Each were working for various tech companies when, they allege, their student statuses were terminated without notice, despite enrolling in a training program that allowed them to work for a period of months while retaining their visa statuses.

The group filed the suit in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota after the terminations forced them to stop working and placed them in jeopardy of being deported.

In explaining his 14-day restraining order, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim said the graduates “clearly face irreparable harm” because of the disruption to their employment and possibly “irreversible” consequences in their immigration statuses.

“Therefore, the Court will join in a growing consensus in this District that such sudden terminations of student status by this Administration, seemingly without notice or cause, demand a [temporary restraining order],” Tunheim wrote.

The story told by the Concordia graduates mirrors similar ones at colleges and universities across Minnesota, where at least 50 students have had their visas revoked or immigration records terminated since early April as the Trump administration increases immigration enforcement.

In their complaints, many of the students state that their visas or student statuses were terminated without warning, possibly in connection to advocacy for Palestine in the war between Israel and Hamas, or for minor violations or traffic offenses that came on the federal government’s radar following a criminal records check.

Four of the students from Concordia University referenced previous driving offenses in their lawsuit, including one who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of driving while intoxicated. In the lawsuit, the students argue the offenses don’t rise to the level necessary to terminate their legal statuses. One of the students said they’ve committed no criminal infractions.

International students who have been detained by federal immigration agents are also taking to the courts to fight their continued jailing. Doğukan Günaydin, a Turkish graduate student at the University of Minnesota, sued the U.S. shortly after officers arrested him outside his St. Paul apartment over a prior drunken driving offense.

An immigration judge granted him bond, a decision that was quickly appealed by DHS, resulting in Günaydin’s continued jailing until his next hearing in early May.

Aditya Wahyu Harsono, an Indonesian man living in Marshall, Minn., before he was detained by ICE on March 27, was also granted bond before the decision was appealed by federal counsel. An immigration judge rejected a motion to terminate the case against him last week and he will face another hearing on May 1, his lawyer and his wife said.

Mohammed Hoque, a Minnesota State Mankato student from Bangladesh, filed a lawsuit alleging he’s been unlawfully held in jail following his arrest on the way home from coding class. In the lawsuit, Hoque said he believes his arrest and detention stems from his vocal support for Palestinians.

On Tuesday, a judge ordered a temporary restraining order preventing the federal government from transferring Hoque out of Minnesota for two weeks. The order, issued by U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell, came after Hoque’s lawyers expressed concern that he would be transferred to a prison out of the state, removing his access to representation.

“Our concern is that a handful of people are being detained to send a chilling message to other students: ‘This could be you,’” Teresa Nelson, legal director of the ACLU of Minnesota, said Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for DHS declined to comment on Hoque’s case, but criticized lawsuits by the ACLU across the country.

“The American Civil Liberties Union appears far more interested in protecting foreign students than the civil liberties and safety of Americans. They should consider changing their name,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Wednesday.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live & study in the United States of America,” the emailed statement said. “When you break our laws and advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked and you should not be in this country.”

A spokesman for Minnesota State Mankato declined to comment on Hoque’s case, citing privacy laws.

Minnesota has an estimated 15,000 international students enrolled at its colleges and universities.

While the U has the largest number of international students, St. Cloud State and Minnesota State have more than 1,700 each, according to 2023-24 data. Private colleges like Concordia University in St. Paul and the University of St. Thomas have hundreds, too.