Five student visa holders working in tech companies sue after losing status

Five non-citizen graduates of Concordia University in St. Paul are suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after their student visas were canceled.

According to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, the five plaintiffs are citizens of India who attained master's degrees in information technology and management. The suit says each of the graduates were working for tech companies as part of authorized post-graduate training and it says each of them had to quit their jobs because they couldn’t hold the positions without student visas.

“Plaintiffs were provided no notice, much less an opportunity to object, to the termination of their status — the foundations of the procedural due process that all persons in the United States (including noncitizens) are entitled under the Fifth Amendment,” reads the lawsuit.

In declarations filed in court, Salma Rameez Shaik, Akhil Pothuraju, Nithish Babu Challa, Shyam Vardhan Reddy Yarkareddy and Almas Abdul all say they were in compliance with all the rules and regulations required to maintain their student visas.   

Four of the people say they had been cited for traffic violations — one of whom said they pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor drunk driving offense.

However, the suit says these offenses are not sufficient to warrant termination of their student visas. The plaintiffs also said they had not engaged in any on-campus political protests or demonstrations.

The suit also asks the court to issue an emergency injunction that would allow them to keep their legal status and prevent them from being arrested and detained. 

“Two judges in this District already issued temporary restraining orders similar to the one sought here on nearly identical facts,” reads the lawsuit, referring to the cases of Rattanand Ratsantiboon and Ziliang Jin. Both men, who also had their student status suddenly terminated by DHS were granted temporary restraining orders by federal court judges last week.

Ratsantiboon and Jin are among at least two dozen international students in Minnesota who have been stripped of their status by the department. 

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