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One day earlier this month, Joseph Fuschetto began getting what he described as “a flood of calls” from international college students.
Their F-1 visas had been abruptly revoked and their records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems terminated without warning, leaving them unable to remain in the United States as students.
Fuschetto, an immigration attorney with Bloomington-based Bunger & Robertson, estimated he’s received at least a dozen calls this month from students worried they will have to abandon their studies and leave the country.
Across the nation, more than 1,000 international students have had their visas or legal status revoked in recent weeks. Several have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, arguing the government denied them due process when it suddenly took away their permission to be in the U.S., according to the Associated Press.
That includes at least seven students enrolled at Indiana schools that were named as plaintiffs in a April 15 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana against the heads of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging the federal agencies unlawfully terminated the legal status of those students.
“We know there are more students than those seven and we encourage anybody facing this challenge to reach out to us,” said Chris Daley, the Indiana ACLU’s executive director.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons are named as defendants in the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. Neither agency immediately responded to The Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of students Jelena Liu, Nina Hu, Junde Zhu, Xiaotian Yu, Xilai Dai, Zhaorui Ni, and Jideofor Odoeze.
Liu is a graduate student at Indiana University Indianapolis. Zhu, Yu, Dai, Ni and Hu study at Purdue University, while Odoeze is a doctoral student at Notre Dame.
Daley said none of those students were informed by the federal government in any way about the actions taken against them.
Christie Popp, an immigration attorney with Popp & Bullman in Bloomington, said she is involved with several immigration attorney groups across the country.
Popp said data compiled from those groups shows more than 80% of students with terminated F-1 visas and SEVIS records were only notified by their universities, with a small number getting notice from a federal agency.
“Basically, DHS thought this was a really good idea, but they don’t have any idea how the system works,” Popp said.
Like Fuschetto, Popp said she’s received a high volume of calls from concerned international students.
If their goal, given the termination notices, is to leave the U.S. and return to their home countries, Popp counsels the students about their rights and what to do if ICE shows up at their door.
Students who want to stay have the option of suing in federal court.
“(If) they’re not able to reinstate this status, the only option is to sue,” Popp said.
How the student visa process works
At least 1,024 students at 160 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records.
Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but colleges say some students are being singled out over infractions as minor as traffic violations, including some long in the past. In some cases, students say it’s unclear why they were targeted.
In some high-profile cases, including the detention of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, Trump’s administration has argued it should be allowed to deport noncitizens over involvement in pro-Palestinian activism. But in the vast majority of visa revocations, colleges say there is no indication affected students had a role in protests.
Erin Murphy, Purdue University’s chief spokesperson, referred The Indiana Lawyer to a statement released April 9 by the university.
“As is the case with universities across the country, Purdue has been in contact with any individual who has been impacted by a change in their visa status. Impacted individuals are encouraged to contact the embassy of their home country and to seek outside legal assistance. Purdue continues to provide support to those impacted, consistent with our responsibilities as a host institution,” the statement read.
Indiana University spokesman Mark Bode did not respond to The Lawyer’s request for comment.
The Indianapolis Star reported the university won’t proactively provide information about its students to DHS and will work to provide options like remote thesis defenses to international students deported by the Trump administration.
In the ACLU lawsuit, the civil liberties group noted that two of the plaintiffs had never committed any criminal offenses and complied with all F-1 status regulations.
The remaining plaintiffs were charged with misdemeanor offenses or paid fines for traffic citations, with one having a case dismissed in Illinois on a domestic violence charge.
The ACLU argued that there is no lawful basis for termination of any of the students’ SEVIS records or F-1 visas.
Fuschetto said a lot of the students who came to him had their visas revoked due to criminal record checks that found alleged violations.
He stressed that a closer look at those students’ situations found that many of them were found not guilty of whatever crime they were charged with or they went through a diversion program.
“A lot of these, these are cases that happened years ago,” Fuschetto said.
Popp said normally, prior to the recent actions by the federal government, a student found in violation of their visa requirements would have done something like taken too few classes, failed to perform well enough in their coursework or worked a job without the proper authorization.
If a student were convicted for a nonviolent crime, like a drunk driving conviction, they still could maintain their SEVIS record and continue with their studies provided they sought alcohol counseling and were not repeat offenders
Fuschetto said, normally, students that got SEVIS record terminations received notifications from their universities and could follow a process for reinstatement.
Kevin Johnson, a University of California, Davis law professor and a visiting professor this semester at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, said the international students facing visa revocations are in a quandary.
“I doubt all of them will be able to secure counsel,” Johnson said.
Johnson said there is a general climate of fear in the immigrant community.
He said the visa revocations will impact the ability of American universities to persuade international students to come here and study.
Instead, they’ll look to Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries to continue their studies.
Universities grapple with protests, free speech issues
Popp said that, prior to the surge in visa terminations, the discussion among immigration attorneys had been focused on students involved in pro-Palestinian protests at a number of American colleges and efforts by federal agencies to detain and deport some protesters.
The issue of campus protests also became a heated issue at IU’s Bloomington campus.
Bloomington’s Dunn Meadow was used for an encampment by pro-Palestinian protesters, with the university’s response becoming controversial and challenged in federal court.
At the encampment, several faculty and student protestors were arrested, which led to criticisms of the university’s response.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Indiana University in a challenge to the university’s newly-implemented expressive activity policy.
The lawsuit alleged the university’s policy violated the First Amendment.
“IU has approved a new policy that prohibits all expressive activity if it takes place between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., even if the activity is not at all disruptive, such as standing silently, holding a sign, wearing a t-shirt with a communicative message, or discussing current events with friends,” ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk said in August. “The protections of the First Amendment do not end at 11 p.m., only to begin again at 6 a.m.”
Steve Sanders, an IU Maurer law professor, said that, in the cases involving protests that have attracted public attention, public safety has appeared to have received more of an emphasis than robust free speech protections.
“The more you think safety to come first, the more you can justify yourself cutting back on free speech,” Sanders said.
Sanders said he thought IU’s policy was drafted with a “law-and-order” mentality.
He acknowledged that a lot of universities are dealing with a decline in public confidence and threats from federal and state governments, making it harder to stand up for free speech ideals.
The ACLU of Indiana also filed a lawsuit in September over a law requiring professors to be disciplined for not fostering “a culture of free inquiry, free expression and intellectual diversity,” citing policies recently enacted at Purdue University and Indiana University.
The complaints, also filed in Indiana’s Southern District Court, argued the law and the new university policies violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.
Elsewhere, Inside INdiana Business reported the Ball State University board of trustees approved a resolution making certain changes related to diversity, equity and inclusion in response to an executive order signed by Trump in January that bans “illegal discrimination” among higher education institutions.
The resolution, recommended by Ball State President Geoffrey Mearns, outlines revisions to the university’s Freedom of Expression Statement and 2012 Values Statements.
Additionally, the board said it is terminating “any current diversity, equity, and inclusion program that violates any applicable federal or state discrimination law,” though specific examples of such programs were not given.
Trump’s executive order gave institutions until April 21 to comply, and Mearns said the resolution followed a 12-week, comprehensive process to ensure Ball State is in compliance.
“Our process included preparing to reassign a small number of employees to new responsibilities and confirming that our funding decisions are based solely on permissible criteria,” Mearns said. “We also modified some programs to ensure that it’s clear that these programs are available to every student.”
Mearns noted that failure to comply with the executive order could lead to “significant adverse consequences” for the university and its students.
What happens next?
While the ACLU waits for resolution of its lawsuit on behalf of the seven students enrolled at Indiana universities, Daley said the ACLU’s Indiana chapter and affiliates throughout the country are concerned about threats to free speech at public universities and also to the country as a whole.
Popp said she was shocked and appalled when she started hearing about international students getting their visas revoked and their SEVIS status terminated.
She called the news upsetting.
“When a student is out of status, they are subject to being detained by ICE,” Popp said.
Popp said she couldn’t believe IU’s and Purdue’s leadership didn’t come out immediately and say something in support of their international students.
Given that a lot of students are not being given reasons as to why their visas were revoked, Johnson said he thinks the federal courts may look favorably on the students’ legal challenges, due to a lack of transparency by federal agencies.•
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