Judge grants University of Iowa international students preliminary injunction

IOWA CITY — By granting a preliminary injunction, a federal judge this week made more permanent an initial temporary restraining order she issued last month blocking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from terminating the status of four University of Iowa international students.

“All four (students) face irreparable harm outweighing risk of injury” to the federal government, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger wrote in a Thursday order. “The loss of legal status in the United States deprives (the students) of the ability to pursue degrees (they) have already invested substantial time, effort, and money to obtain.”

In responding to the UI students’ April 21 lawsuit, U.S. attorneys on May 2 rejected the notion that status termination in its Student Exchange Visitor System — or SEVIS — amounted to termination of their F-1 visa status. And they asserted the SEVIS records “are mere data entries that carry no consequences and do not reflect actual student status.”

“A SEVIS record does not necessarily indicate a termination of nonimmigrant status,” according to the government response. “(The students’) suggestion that a SEVIS termination puts them out of status is mistaken. (The students) do not need injunctive relief from this court for additional protection.”

But Ebinger disagreed, writing, “The court finds for preliminary purposes that SEVIS status is not meaningless and distinct from actual status.”

“Immediate consequences flow from reliance by Homeland Security, the Department of State, employers, and academic institutions on SEVIS records as proof of student status,” she wrote. “The alleged unlawful termination of student status through termination in SEVIS records eliminates or substantially hinders the ability to study, graduate, work, obtain reinstatement of status, alter status, or secure future immigration benefits.”

For the purpose of granting “preliminary relief,” she rejected the government’s argument and “interpretation of their own actions and the purported distinction between actual student status, on the one hand, and SEVIS data regarding student status, on the other.”

In issuing a preliminary injunction, the judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to maintain the students’ F-1 status in SEVIS — including a backdated notation of uninterrupted active status to avoid any future action based on prior termination.

She ordered Homeland Security to produce copies of records or screenshots showing schools and agencies can see those backdated notations; to set aside the students’ status termination decisions; and to not terminate their statuses again “absent a valid ground.”

Given threats of deportation sent to each student, Ebinger ordered the government not to arrest, detain or transfer the students out of her jurisdiction or initiate deportation proceedings.

And she questioned Homeland Security’s compliance with her temporary restraining order that preceded her more lasting preliminary injunction — reporting neither schools, agencies nor Homeland Security field staff could see the backdated notice that the students’ SEVIS records have been active without interruption.

Each of the four UI students named in the lawsuit have been charged with or convicted of non-violent crimes, according to their lawsuit — which argues their charges, including operating while intoxicated, do not qualify them for SEVIS status cancellation.

Ebinger questioned the government’s assertion that “ICE will not re-terminate an alien’s SEVIS record based solely on the (nonqualifying criminal record) that led to the initial termination.”

“ICE counsel represented, ‘ICE will not re-terminate an alien’s SEVIS record based solely on the (nonqualifying criminal record) that led to the initial termination’,” Ebinger wrote, but reported Homeland Security has given no evidence to support the assertion and doesn’t disavow reliance on nonqualifying criminal history.

“Nor do defendants disavow other factors not provided by law or regulation. The limited … declaration and secondhand representations from counsel provide no assurance that future actions toward nonimmigrant students will be constrained by controlling law or regulations.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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