A federal judge in New Jersey today granted a preliminary injunction on behalf of six international students attending Rutgers University who had their student status effectively terminated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The students are represented by the ACLU of New Jersey, the Rutgers Immigrant Community Assistance Project and attorneys from the John J. Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest and Constitutional Law at Gibbons P.C.
The preliminary injunction granted today requires the government to fully restore the students’ records retroactive to the original date of termination and provides due process protections by prohibiting the government from re-terminating the students’ records without at least 20 days' notice. The order also prohibits ICE from directly or indirectly imposing any consequences on the students arising out of ICE’s prior decision to terminate their records.
The complaint and a motion for a temporary restraining order were filed on April 22 and argued the Trump administration’s abrupt termination of the students’ immigration records, and effectively their F-1 student status, violates the law and the Constitution. While the government later reactivated the immigration records after students filed dozens of cases across the country seeking relief, the remaining notations in the students’ records about the unlawful terminations have continued to cause them harm and can pose serious legal consequences if they are not removed.
The students’ attorneys issued the following statements:
“Our clients are valued members of their community whose lives have been upended because of ICE’s unlawful actions. We are grateful that the court recognized the harm they continue to suffer and put protections in place for the duration of their case. The government not only failed to provide notice or explanation when it terminated our clients’ records, but then gave shifting rationale for doing so, underscoring how arbitrarily this administration is treating students. But like all other people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, our clients are entitled to the Constitutional guarantee of due process of law,” said Molly Linhorst, ACLU-NJ Staff Attorney.
“The government terminated our students’ SEVIS records unlawfully causing unreasonable and unwarranted personal and professional harm without notice or opportunity for meaningful redress. Critically, this preliminary injunction permits our students to safely return to their research, work, and public lives, while we litigate to demand the government comply with its own regulatory and due process requirements,” said Jason C. Hernandez, Esq., Managing Attorney of the Rutgers Immigrant Community Assistance Project and Adjunct Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School.
