ACLU of Indi­ana sues Trump admin, claims DHS vio­lat­ed rights of for­eign stu­dents

The Amer­i­can Civ­il Lib­er­ties Union (ACLU) of Indi­ana filed a suit against the Trump admin­is­tra­tion on Tues­day, claim­ing that the law­ful sta­tus of sev­en inter­na­tion­al stu­dents in Indi­ana were report­ed­ly ter­mi­nat­ed with­out expla­na­tion.

The suit claims that the U.S. Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS) did not offer the stu­dents any oppor­tu­ni­ty to chal­lenge the deci­sions and there­fore vio­lat­ed due process rights. The suit names DHS Sec­re­tary Kristi Noem and Todd Lyons, act­ing direc­tor of U.S. Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment.

The Trump admin­is­tra­tion has tar­get­ed hun­dreds of inter­na­tion­al stu­dents in recent weeks for their engage­ment in anti-Israel protests, which the admin­is­tra­tion argued was sup­port for U.S.-designated ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion Hamas. The admin­is­tra­tion has also revoked visas for inter­na­tion­al stu­dents over past infrac­tions such as traf­fic vio­la­tions. 

“There is no rhyme or rea­son for DHS’s action,” ACLU of Indi­ana Legal Direc­tor Ken Falk said. “To ter­mi­nate an inter­na­tion­al student’s sta­tus, the U.S. gov­ern­ment must adhere to reg­u­la­to­ry stan­dards and pro­vide basic due process, which it has failed to do.”

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS SUE OVER TRUMP ADMIN REVOKING VISAS

Plain­tiffs claimed inter­na­tion­al stu­dents are allowed to con­tin­ue their stud­ies and main­tain their legal res­i­den­cy sta­tus even after their visas get revoked.

The law­suit asked the U.S. Dis­trict Court to allow the sev­en inter­na­tion­al stu­dents to con­tin­ue their stud­ies by rein­stat­ing their sta­tus. A tem­po­rary restrain­ing order has also been request­ed to pro­vide imme­di­ate pro­tec­tion to the stu­dents, accord­ing to the ACLU of Indi­ana.

Among the stu­dents named in the law­suit, six are Chi­nese cit­i­zens attend­ing Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty or Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty Indi­anapo­lis. Anoth­er stu­dent is a Niger­ian cit­i­zen attend­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of Notre Dame. Two of the sev­en stu­dents named were expect­ed to grad­u­ate next month.

“The impact on these stu­dents’ lives is pro­found, and now they live in fear of being deport­ed at any moment,” Falk con­tin­ued. “We’re call­ing on the court to take imme­di­ate steps to stop these unlaw­ful actions.” 

TRUMP COLLEGE CRACKDOWN: LIST OF STUDENTS DETAINED AMID ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUSES

Fox News Dig­i­tal reached out to the DHS for com­ment, but they did not imme­di­ate­ly respond.

The law­suit is one of the increas­ing num­ber of com­plaints the White House is fac­ing over stu­dent visa revo­ca­tion.

Numer­ous inter­na­tion­al stu­dents whose visas were ter­mi­nat­ed with­out expla­na­tion recent­ly also filed anoth­er suit against the Trump admin­is­tra­tion over an alleged vio­la­tion of due process.

Trump admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials have defend­ed the revo­ca­tion of stu­dent visas, claim­ing that the gov­ern­ment reserves the right to can­cel them.

“There is no right to a stu­dent visa,” Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Rubio told reporters on March 28. “We can can­cel a stu­dent visa under the law just the same way that we can deny a stu­dent visa under the law. And we will do so in cas­es we find appro­pri­ate,” 

Fox News’ Rachel Wolf con­tributed to this report.