ACLU NJ Sues Representing 6 Rutgers Students w/ Status Illegally Revoked by Rubio / Trump
The following is the press release from ACLU on this topic followed by the tweet announcing the action:
ACLU-NJ and Partners File Suit to Safeguard Rights of Rutgers Students Targeted by ICE
The ACLU of New Jersey today filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of six international students attending Rutgers University who have had their student status effectively terminated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration’s abrupt termination of the students’ immigration records, and effectively their F-1 student status, violates the law and the Constitution. Today’s filing also seeks an immediate injunction and restoration of the students’ immigration records and status while the case is pending.
The students are also represented by 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 lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey with a motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent the students from being arrested, detained, or deported for the duration of the case.
“The Trump administration has been unlawfully targeting international students across the country in a concerted effort to chill academic freedom and undermine the next generation of leaders,” said ACLU-NJ Legal Director Jeanne LoCicero. “Attacking this group of Rutgers students is clearly part of larger attempts to intimidate and terrorize immigrant communities. Our clients, like the hundreds of students across the country experiencing harm from ICE’s actions, are now at risk of arrest, detention, and deportation. They are entitled to fairness and due process of the law.”
This group of Rutgers students represented includes five international students and one recent graduate who have remained in good standing with the university throughout their studies and employment training programs. None of them have engaged in any conduct that should subject them to this type of unfair and arbitrary action by ICE.
Specifically, the lawsuit argues that by abruptly terminating the students’ records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), ICE is communicating its determination that the students have failed to maintain their student status – a baseless determination that causes real harm to students who have worked hard and made sacrifices to complete their degrees and training.
“Students from around the globe attend Rutgers University, making it their academic home and becoming part of the fabric of our University and New Jersey communities,” said Director of the Constitutional Rights Clinic and Assistant Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School Jessica Rofé. “The abrupt termination of their SEVIS records and status without meaningful process or justification in an attempt to coerce them to hastily depart upends their academic and career trajectories, disrupts our communities, and is an affront to due process.”
As a result, this arbitrary termination of the students’ immigration records – and by extension, their student status – without affording them notice, adequate explanation, or a meaningful opportunity to be heard, violates their fundamental right to due process provided under the Fifth Amendment.
According to reporting, more than 1,700 international students from around the country have had their student status terminated. The timing and uniformity of these terminations leave little question that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has adopted a nationwide policy of mass termination of F-1 student status that has resulted in the cancellation of hundreds – if not thousands – of students’ status across the country.
“F-1 student status” refers to the students’ formal immigration classification in the United States after they have entered the country with an “F-1 student visa,” the document that grants permission for a noncitizen student to study at DHS-approved colleges and universities.
