Ruling in wake of high-profile cases where students participating in pro-Palestinian rallies have been detained, processed for deportation
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Thursday from terminating the legal status of international students in the US, while a court case challenging previous terminations of foreign students is pending.
US District Judge Jeffrey White in the state of California issued the order which bars the government "from arresting and incarcerating any of the named Plaintiffs in these cases and similarly situated individuals nationwide pending resolution of these proceedings" and "from transferring any of the named Plaintiffs in these cases and similarly situated individuals nationwide from outside the jurisdiction of their residence."
White added that immigration officials are prohibited "from imposing any adverse legal effect on any named Plaintiffs in these cases and similarly situated individuals nationwide that otherwise may be caused by the termination of their SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) record; and from reversing the reinstatement of the SEVIS record of the Plaintiffs in these cases and similarly situated individuals nationwide."
International students, however, can still be arrested for committing violent crimes.
In handing down his ruling, White said the government's actions "wreaked havoc not only on the lives of Plaintiffs here, but on similarly situated ... nonimmigrants across the United States and continues to do so."
The order comes in the wake of several high-profile cases in which international students participating in pro-Palestinian rallies on college campuses, including students writing opinion pieces in campus newspapers, have been detained, stripped of their legal status and processed for deportation.
One of the cases involved Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, 30, who was targeted by the Trump administration for deportation after he helped organize pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
Khalil, who has a US resident alien card and is married to an American citizen, has been held since March in a Louisiana detention facility -- 1,300 miles (2,092 kilometers) from his residence in the state of New York. He is scheduled for an immigration court hearing on Thursday.
