Judge orders for temporary reinstatement of visas for 5 international students in Missouri
Ryan Shiner
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A judge ordered that five international college students in Missouri who had their visas recently revoked to have them be temporarily reinstated.
A temporary restraining order was signed on Thursday by Missouri Western District Judge Stephen Bough. Five students on Sunday had sued Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the DHS and the US Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
The plaintiffs are referred to as “student does” in court documents. One student attends Truman State University, another attends Northwest Missouri State, a third goes to Southeast Missouri State, a fourth goes to Missouri S&T in Rolla and a fifth goes to Virginia Tech University but is employed in Kansas City as a part their education.
The students are in the country on F-1 student visas and allege that their student visa registrations in the Student Exchange Visitor Information System had been terminated, the order states. The termination of their student visas opens them up for being removed from the country, according to court documents.
The lawsuit alleges a violation of constitutional due process and multiple violations of the Administrative Procedure Act, according to the order filed on Thursday.
The students in the lawsuit allege that when their SEVIS status was terminated, the defendants had violated their own regulations. The restraining order orders the SEVIS status to be retroactively reinstated to April 4 for one student, April 9 for three students and April 10 for one student.