Indian student challenges the Trump administration’s decision to revoke visa in court

International students in the United States are feeling the heat as a result of the Trump administration’s crackdown on them, which includes revoking their F-1 study visas and terminating their legal rights to stay in America.

Several students and US universities from over half of the states in the US have reported the cancellation of students’ records from the SEVIS system and the revocation of their study visas. SEVIS is the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a web-based system for maintaining information on international nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors in the United States that is administered by the Department of Homeland Security.

Some of the international students have started filing lawsuits against the Donald Trump administration in the United States.

In one such case, four students from Michigan universities, one of whom is Indian, recently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. The lawsuit was filed by ACLU of Michigan in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of four international students on April 10, 2025.

The F-1 student immigration status was abruptly revoked for these four students. The students are now asking the court for a remedy in the form of recovering their legal status.

The four students have named the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Acting Director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), and the ICE Field Office Director of Detroit as Defendants in the lawsuit. They alleged that the Defendants’ actions violated the Fifth Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act.

The reason for termination cited by the authorities has been the criminal records of the plaintiffs. Students informed that they are in US for the last 2 to 4 years and that they have never been convicted of any crimes, other than traffic or parking violations

The students are seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) and a preliminary injunction to compel DHS to reinstate their SEVIS records, arguing that the termination of these records has severe consequences for their ability to continue their studies and maintain their legal status.

DHS has not initiated removal proceedings against any of the plaintiffs. To initiate the removal process, DHS would first issue plaintiffs a notice to appear at an immigration hearing. Once removal proceedings are initiated, a noncitizen is entitled to counsel and to have his or her case heard by an immigration judge. If an immigration judge orders a noncitizen removed, he or she can move for reconsideration and appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, then the Sixth Circuit.

On April 15, the students (Plaintiffs) submitted a supplementary document to bring to the Court’s attention a decision of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin issuing a temporary restraining order in a highly similar case.

An Indian student who had filed a similar lawsuit to restore his F-1 status has won a judicial challenge to a US visa termination order. A federal judge had temporarily halted the Trump administration’s sweeping drive to cancel international student visas, preventing the agency from taking action against an Indian engineering student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.