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U of I international students sue Homeland Security after student visas are revoked • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
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Date: 2025-04-22
Four University of Iowa students and graduates from China and India, one of whom works for the state as an epidemiologist, are suing the federal government for revoking their status as students.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, was filed by a UI College of Law professor on behalf of the four plaintiffs, identified in court records only as John Doe No. 1 through 4.
Named as defendants are Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, of which Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is a part. Also named as a defendant is Acting Director of ICE Todd Lyons.
According to the lawsuit, each of the plaintiffs was admitted to the United States on an F-1 student visa. The plaintiffs claim the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has violated their due process rights by terminating their student status earlier this month without legal justification or explanation.
Since beginning their studies, the lawsuit claims, the plaintiffs have maintained their status as students, are in good academic standing and have not committed any serious criminal offenses. Three of the four are studying chemical engineering, economics or exercise science, while the fourth is working for the State of Iowa as an epidemiologist.
The lawsuit claims that on April 10, 2025, ICE abruptly canceled, without explanation, the plaintiffs’ status as students within DHS’ Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database. The same day, the plaintiffs each received emails from the University of Iowa’s International Students and Scholars Services informing them of the cancellation and the fact that the university was not responsible for the action.
Four days later, the lawsuit claims, three of the plaintiffs’ visas were revoked without explanation. The three each received identical messages from U.S. embassies, warning them that “remaining in the United States can result in fines, detention, and/or deportation,” and adding that “deportation can take place at a time that does not allow the person being deported to secure possessions or conclude affairs in the United States. Persons being deported may be sent to countries other than their countries of origin.”
Lawsuit alleges threats and coercion
The lawsuit is challenging what it calls the Department of Homeland Security’s “misuse of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems to further unlawful ends,” alleging that DHS has initiated a policy of “coercing international students into self-deportation by leveraging ambiguous student-status revocations, coupled with visa revocation notices and threatening language.”
The lawsuit claims Homeland Security’s “lack of transparency and procedural safeguards created chaos within educational institutions and upended the lives of lawful F-1 visa holders.”
The lawsuit emphasizes that the plaintiffs are not challenging the revocation of their F-1 student visas but are instead challenging DHS’ termination of their student status to create a “pretext for future adverse immigration actions against them.”
The plaintiffs are now “experiencing intense mental and financial suffering because they cannot continue with their studies, and fear being detained and removed if they do so,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit also claims the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database was created by Congress to be an administrative tool for oversight and compliance of international student visas and was never intended to be an “a weapon of immigration policy.”
Federal regulations prescribe the three specific circumstances in which DHS can terminate student status, such as unauthorized employment, providing false information, or committing a violent crime — and the plaintiffs allege none of those criteria apply to their case.
The terminations are without legal justification, have violated constitutional guarantees of procedural due process, violate DHS’s own regulations and policies, and are “far beyond DHS’ statutory authority,” the lawsuit claims.
The plaintiff’s petition describes John Doe No. 1 as an Indian national who resides in Iowa City and is a fourth-year Ph.D. student studying chemical engineering. He first came to the United States on an F-1 visa in 2021. The lawsuit alleges his only criminal history is a speeding ticket and a misdemeanor conviction for drunken driving.
John Doe No. 2 is a Chinese national and third-year undergraduate student who resides in Tiffin. His only interactions with law enforcement are alleged to be for speeding, driving without a valid driver’s license and a disorderly conduct conviction.
John Doe No. 3 is a Chinese national living in Iowa City and is both a third-year undergraduate and pre-doctorate student at the university. The lawsuit indicates he has been convicted of first-offense drunken driving, and has two speeding citations, one failure-to-yield citation, and one citation for driving without a valid driver’s license.
John Doe No. 4 is an Indian national, a master of public health graduate of the University of Iowa, and a practicing epidemiologist working for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. His only interaction with law enforcement is alleged to be an arrest for drunken driving that was later expunged from court records.
The plaintiffs are represented by University of Iowa law student practitioners Mikhail Acherkan, Jude Hagerman, Angela Pandit, Ian Reeves, Justin Rempe and Isabella Siragusa, under the direct supervision of Katherine Melloy Goettel, clinical associate professor at the university’s College of Law.
The Department of Homeland Security has yet to file a response to the lawsuit and, in response to a request for comment, provided only a statement “on background.”
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