Federal judge extends restraining order maintaining legal status for MSU international students

U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen on Tuesday extended a restraining order barring the federal government from taking action against two international students currently enrolled at Montana State University — the latest development in a high-profile case tied to the Trump administration’s handling of foreign student visas.

Christensen, during a hearing inside Missoula’s Russell Smith Federal Courthouse, issued his oral 14-day extension on the day his initial restraining order was set to expire. That gives him time to consider the ACLU of Montana’s request for a preliminary injunction protecting the MSU students from detainment, deportation or other government actions related to their F-1 visas. ACLU Legal Director Alex Rate told Montana Free Press he was “gratified” with the order and felt it was “a step in the right direction” toward offering the ACLU’s clients certainty regarding their legal status in the United States.

The case began earlier this month after the two students — named in court filings as John Roe and Jane Doe to protect their identities — were notified by MSU of the termination of their academic records in the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). According to court records, neither the students nor MSU officials received direct communication or an explanation for the termination from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is one of the primary defendants in the ACLU’s lawsuit endeavoring to protect the students as they complete their academic goals in this country.

Rate argued before the court Tuesday that it’s “important to overstate the terror when they received that letter on April 10,” referencing the notice both students received from MSU after the campus discovered their SEVIS records had been terminated. Prior to reading it, he continued, both students were focused primarily on their respective studies, Roe as a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering and physics, and Doe as a master’s student in microbiology who was scheduled to defend her professional paper April 18. 

The sudden termination of their SEVIS records thrust Roe and Doe into what Rate described as a state of confusion and fear over potential detainment or deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rate noted the federal government’s own guidance to universities suggests that SEVIS termination must result in the student immediately leaving the United States. And while the plaintiffs’ records have since been reinstated by the court, Rate said that Roe remains afraid to leave his apartment or even answer the door.

“They knew this country no longer welcomed them,” Rate said of the underlying message sent to his clients by the SEVIS termination. What they need, he added, is “a feeling of certainty.”

Rate also emphasized that, based on Homeland Security’s online guidance, the termination of the plaintiffs’ SEVIS records also rendered them incapable of continuing their employment in on-campus jobs, which both have relied on as their sole source of income.

Arguing on behalf of the defendants — DHS and its leader, Secretary Kristi Noem, as well as acting ICE Director Todd Lyons — Assistant U.S. Attorney John Newman argued that the students were not actually under imminent threat of enforcement action, claiming that the termination of their SEVIS records did not equate to a revocation or termination of their F-1 visas. He described the government’s online guidance for universities using the record system as “not being really well-worded,” but insisted both MSU students could have availed themselves of a process for reconsidering their status and that the SEVIS termination did not equate to a final action by Homeland Security.

“It’s just the deletion of an electronic record,” Newman said.

Newman also maintained that the lawsuit has since been rendered moot, as the Trump administration announced April 25 that the academic records of hundreds of foreign students across the country are being reinstated while the government works to refine a new process to review and terminate international visas. However, Christensen disagreed, noting the government’s approach to the issue has been “an ever-changing landscape” and stating he was “satisfied that I still have a case and a controversy.”

In laying out the federal government’s side of the case, Newman spoke little to the explanation for the SEVIS terminations finally offered in recent court filings: the past arrests of Roe and Doe by law enforcement in Bozeman. According to court records, Roe was previously arrested by the Bozeman Police Department on a charge of theft, while Doe was arrested by MSU Police on a charge of partner or family member assault. The ACLU has not denied either claim, but Rate argued Tuesday that neither incident has resulted in a conviction, and that the potential criminal penalties both plaintiffs face do not meet the benchmarks for resulting SEVIS termination. In one response to a question from Christensen, Newman did speculate that the government’s eventual goal in developing a new process for reviewing SEVIS records is to put the onus on university staff to investigate any student criminal activity that could impact their ability to remain in the U.S.

The ACLU of Montana’s case is one of a growing number of lawsuits arising from the Trump administration’s sudden termination of SEVIS records impacting more than 1,000 international students on campuses nationwide. In Montana, two other students to date are confirmed to have had their records terminated — one at MSU and another at the University of Montana. Neither is part of the ACLU’s lawsuit before Christensen.