A federal judge in Concord is ordering the government to reinstate a Dartmouth student's legal status in the US. This order follows a couple of extensions of a Temporary Restraining Order as the circumstances surrounding the case moved quickly.
The lawsuit began in early April when Dartmouth student Xiaotian Liu sued the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Liu was among about a thousand international students from around the country who had their status ended without apparent explanation or notice.
In most of these cases, it appears that Homeland Security terminated the status of international students in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System without warning. The system, commonly known as SEVIS, is meant to monitor people who come to the United States for academic purposes.
The government announced they would reinstate the status for these students on Friday, but it’s unclear whether Liu, specifically, would be able to go back to class without this order.
Attorneys from the ACLU and the law firm Shaheen and Gordon celebrated the move. They said it would make sure that Liu can go back to his research while the lawsuit continues.
“These cases are necessary to continue at this time to ensure that international students do in fact have both active legal status and SEVIS records so that they may pursue their studies, work, and participate in school-related activities as needed,” said Gilles Bissonnette from the ACLU.
The order on Tuesday from Judge Samantha Elliot found that Liu could face irreparable harm if his status were not reinstated – including loss of income, ability to do his research and potentially face detention or deportation.
The order acknowledges the rapid changes made by the government since Liu sued, including that DHS changed their reason on why they changed Liu’s status specifically and also changed their broader policy on this database. She also noted the inconsistencies in the government’s argument that Liu shouldn’t be awarded a preliminary injunction.
“This constantly shifting ground has made it difficult to weigh the defendants’ arguments in opposing preliminary relief,” the order reads.
The federal government filed a motion late Tuesday asking the judge to reconsider the injunction.
In a similar case filed in mid-April, various ACLU chapters, including New Hampshire, and the law firm Shaheen and Gordon, have a separate federal, class action lawsuit seeking to reinstate the status of 100 students from the region and Puerto Rico.
It is also unclear whether all of these students have their record back.
