Indian student sues Trump administration over possible deportation from US

Amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, Chinmay Deore, an Indian student studying in the United States, along with three other foreign students, filed a lawsuit against their possible deportation.

The students, who are studying at Michigan public universities, took the legal route after their immigration status was terminated ‘unlawfully’.

The development comes amid Trump renewing his attack on top university Harvard, whose federal funding and tax-exempt status he has threatened to remove over its refusal to submit to wide-ranging government oversight.

Along with Deore, China's Xiangyun Bu and Qiuyi Yang, and Nepal's Yogesh Joshi filed the lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and immigration officials on Friday, reported PTI.

They said that their student immigration status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) was illegally terminated "without sufficient notice and explanation".

SEVIS is a database that tracks information about nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors in the US.

They filed a federal lawsuit along with a request for an emergency injunction on behalf of the students who had their F-1 student immigration status unlawfully and abruptly terminated by the Trump administration for no valid reason and without notice, said the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, which represents the students.

"The lawsuit asks the court to reinstate the status of these students so that they will be able to complete their studies and avoid facing the risk of detention and deportation," it said.

The complaint in court has named DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and ICE Detroit Field Office Director Robert Lynch.

"None of them has been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime in the US. None has violated any immigration law. Nor have they been active in on-campus protests regarding any political issue," said the complaint.

"DHS did not provide the students or their schools any meaningful explanation for terminating their F-1 student status," the complaint said.

Ramis Wadood, staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan said that these cruel and illegal government actions have real-life consequences.

“Status terminations don’t just disrupt the lives of the students being targeted; the government’s actions will inevitably deter future international scholars from choosing Michigan and the US as their academic destination,” Wadood added.