Four students, including an Indian national from Michigan public universities, have filed a lawsuit against their potential deportation after the Donald Trump administration “unlawfully and abruptly” terminated their student immigration status without valid reason or prior notice.
Chinmay Deore from India, Xiangyun Bu and Qiuyi Yang from China, and Yogesh Joshi from Nepal-all students at Michigan-based public universities, filed a lawsuit on Friday against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and immigration officials, stating that their student immigration status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) was “illegally” terminated “without sufficient notice and explanation.”
None of them has been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime in the United States.
The complaint alleged that the termination of F-1 student status under SEVIS is “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, contrary to constitutional right, contrary to law, and in excess of statutory jurisdiction.”
The lawsuit urged the court to restore the Plaintiffs’ F-1 student status in SEVIS at their respective schools and to prohibit their arrest, detention, transfer, or deportation.
They alleged that “DHS did not provide the students or their schools any meaningful explanation for terminating their F-1 student status.”
Instead of being notified directly by DHS or any other government agency, each student received an email from their respective school, informing them that the school had discovered the termination during a routine check of SEVIS records.
The stated reason for termination, as recorded in SEVIS, was largely identical for each Plaintiff: “OTHERWISE FAILING TO MAINTAIN STATUS: Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked. The SEVIS record has been terminated.”
However, their respective schools were unable to provide any further details regarding the termination. The schools merely advised the Plaintiffs to make arrangements to leave the country immediately.
The lawsuit urged the court to reinstate the status of these students so that they will be able to complete their studies and avoid facing the risk of detention and deportation.
A lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan names Kristi Noem, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Todd Lyons, Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and Robert Lynch, the Field Office Director for ICE in Detroit, as defendants.
21-year-old Chinmay, native to India, lives with his immediate family in Canton and has never been charged with or convicted of a crime in the United States.
On April 4, 2025, Wayne State University informed Chinmay that his F-1 student status in SEVIS had been terminated.
The email he received stated: “Our record shows that your SEVIS has been terminated this morning- TERMINATION REASON: OTHERWISE FAILING TO MAINTAIN STATUS – Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked. SEVIS record has been terminated,” with no further details or allegations provided.
He has not received any notice from the Department of State regarding the revocation of any F-1 visa attributed to him. In fact, since he applied for F-1 student status while lawfully present in the United States as an H-4 visa holder, he never even received an F-1 visa that could have been canceled in the first place.
He first entered the United States with his family on an H-4 dependent visa in 2004. He and his family left the United States in 2008, and he later returned with his family (again on an H-4 dependent visa) in 2014. After completing high school in Michigan, he enrolled at Wayne State University under his H-4 status.
In May 2022, he lawfully applied for and was granted, permission to transition to F-1 student status when he was aging out of his H-4 status.
He has not been charged with any civil infraction, motor vehicle code violation, or immigration law violation.
“He has not been active in on-campus protests regarding any political issue,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit argues that the DHS’s “unilateral” termination of F-1 student status under SEVIS without sufficient notice and explanation, has disrupted their ability to complete their degrees as F-1 students, work as paid researchers and instructors, and pursue post-graduate opportunities in the United States.
Moreover, they may face immediate detention and deportation.
Loren Khogali, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan, which is representing the students, said, “This administration continues to act as if the most basic constitutional requirements don’t apply to them.”
“The right to due process is one of our most fundamental constitutional rights, requiring that a person receive sufficient notice to respond and challenge a government action,” he said.
In addition to attorneys from the ACLU of Michigan, the plaintiffs in the case are represented by ACLU cooperating attorneys from the law firms Pitt, McGehee, Palmer, Bonanni & Rivers and Abrutyn Law.
The ACLU’s lawsuit highlights that international students form a “vital community” at state’s universities, and unilaterally stripping students of their status “violates the law.”
The lawsuit clarifies that the Plaintiffs are not challenging the revocation of their F-1 visas, assuming the visas were revoked, but are instead challenging the Defendants’ unlawful termination of their F-1 student status in SEVIS.
There is a difference between an F-1 student visa and an F-1 student status.
The F-1 student visa refers only to the document that grants permission for a noncitizen student to enter the United States, whereas F-1 student status, which is what is tracked in SEVIS, refers to that student’s formal immigration classification in the United States after they have entered.
The suit argued that revocation of an F-1 visa does not constitute a failure to maintain F-1 student status and, therefore, cannot serve as a basis for termination of F-1 student status in SEVIS.
“No administration should be allowed to circumvent the law to unilaterally strip students of their status, disrupt their studies, and put them at risk of deportation,” said Ramis Wadood, staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan.
“These cruel and illegal government actions have real-life consequences. Status terminations don’t just disrupt the lives of the students being targeted; the government’s actions will inevitably deter future international scholars from choosing Michigan and the United States as their academic destination. This will further undermine the reputation of our universities as leaders in research, innovation, and campus diversity, all of which are currently in jeopardy,” he added.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, his administration has implemented policies targeting noncitizen students and scholars involved in pro-Palestinian activism on U.S. college campuses.
The Trump administration’s sudden revocation of visas and immigration status for hundreds of university students across the country.
Earlier, Ranjani Srinivasan, a U.S.-based Indian scholar who sought refuge in Canada after her visa was revoked, and Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar detained by U.S. immigration authorities.
