DePaul University international student’s visa status in jeopardy after being removed from SEVIS

CHICAGO — The future of a DePaul University international student’s visa status in the United States is in jeopardy after a recent move by the federal government.

The judge in Friday’s hearing indicated that she would issue an order not to have the 26-year-old removed from the country.

The plaintiff is a DePaul University master’s student from India who is studying business analytics and is set to graduate in June.

He is now suing the federal government after the Department of Homeland Security removed him from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) a database that tracks students and exchange visitors.

According to his attorneys, being removed from that system could prevent him from working lawfully and securing his master’s degree.

In court Friday the plaintiff’s defense team petitioned an emergency motion to speed up the lawsuit in hopes of reinstating their client’s record in the database.

Ed Yohnka, with the ACLU of Illinois, said similar situations are happening to international students across the country.

“What’s happening is, is that people are being removed from the list that actually permits them to be in the United States, that’s SEVIS, and even though their F-1 hasn’t necessarily been withdrawn, they’re just, you know, in this limbo,” Yohnka said. “They’re essentially authorized to be a student in the United States, but not to be in the United States.”

Legal documents state that on April 8, the DePaul University student got an email from the university saying federal immigration officials had revoked his F-1 student visa status in SEVIS without explanation.

However, in court on Friday, the lawyer representing the government said the plaintiff maintains his F-1 status but his defense argues that being out of SEVIS means their client can’t work in a program that offers employment related to his area of study.

“More than a thousand students across the country are facing this and it’s not really clear, you know, what rationale, what standard,” Yohnka said. “I think this is just really a continuation of this, you know, policy to eliminate anybody who the administration sees as other.”

The next steps in the case involving the DePaul student are still evolving. The judge who presided over Friday’s hearing said there are 15 similar ones in federal court.