On April 18 local time, a federal court judge in California, USA, issued a ten-page temporary restraining order prohibiting the federal government from taking any adverse actions against the identities and security of the four Chinese student plaintiffs within the next fourteen days.

According to previous media reports, on April 11, four Chinese students from top schools such as the University of California, Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University filed a lawsuit against the US government. The aforementioned four Chinese students, who have "no criminal record," were suddenly forced to have their identity records canceled in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) by the US government, facing great blows such as immediate deportation, interrupted education, and shattered career plans.

"We have achieved our first victory!" said Zhu Kolliang, head of the Silicon Valley office of DeHeng Law Offices, who is handling this case. In this ruling, the judge believed that the four plaintiffs may suffer detention, deportation, and termination of studies after losing their student status, and the legal claims of the plaintiffs had some basis; therefore, it was necessary to provide temporary protection for the four plaintiffs before the final judgment was made.

However, it is worth noting that this temporary restraining order only protects these four plaintiffs. A more crucial battle will take place at the upcoming hearing. The originally scheduled hearing on Monday has been adjusted to Thursday (April 24) at 11:00 AM to give both parties more time to prepare for the hearing.

According to Xinhua News Agency, on the 18th, more than 100 affected international students jointly filed a lawsuit with the US Federal Court, requesting the restoration of their legal status and preventing the US government from continuing to implement this policy.

The American Civil Liberties Union branch filed the lawsuit on behalf of the above students in the Federal Court of New Hampshire State.

According to statistics from CNN and the Associated Press, since late March, approximately 1,100 international students and graduates from over 170 universities across the United States have had their visas or statuses revoked in the International Students and Exchange Visitors Information System.

According to US media reports, the affected students come from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, involving private elite schools like Harvard and Stanford, as well as public universities. Some students had their visas revoked due to participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while others were due to minor violations such as traffic offenses. Some students expressed that they did not know why they became "targets."

The complaint pointed out that the above international students lost their legal status without warning, causing them to doubt whether they could remain in the US to complete their studies. The plaintiff's lawyer stated that the US government did not issue any notice before terminating the legal status of foreign students.

On March 19, Chairman Morello of the China Special Committee of the US House of Representatives wrote to six US university presidents, requesting detailed information about Chinese students at their schools by April 1, claiming that China has placed researchers in top US institutions, enabling direct access to two-way sensitive technologies.

It was reported that the International Students and Exchange Visitors Information System is managed by the US Department of Homeland Security and is mainly used to maintain information about international students and their statuses in the US. CNN said that the White House and the Department of Homeland Security have not commented on this matter yet.

In addition to class-action lawsuits, some affected students also filed other lawsuits, stating that they were deprived of their rights to due process. The relevant complaints pointed out that the US government's move deprives these students of their ability to continue their education and maintain employment in the US and face risks of arrest, detention, and deportation.

According to statistics from Inside Higher Ed, a website covering higher education in the US, as of April 18, over 1,550 international students and graduates from more than 240 universities have had their legal statuses canceled by the US Department of State, and the number continues to grow.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7495300133802869259/

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