California, Pennsylvania Students Sue Over Revoked F-1 Visas (2)

A southern California college student seeks to reverse the Department of Homeland Security’s termination of its program that tracks their status as non-immigrant, full-time international student F-1 visa holders.

DHS’s decision to end the Student and Exchange Visitor Program effectively strips program participants of their ability to remain as students in the United States, says the unidentified “Student Doe #1" plaintiff. The lawsuit, filed April 5 in the US District Court for the Central District of California, names as defendants DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons.

The F-1 visa revocations were designed to “coerce” students such as the plaintiff into abandoning their studies “and ‘self-deporting’ despite not violating their status,” Doe alleges.

The new DHS policy appears to be “primarily targeting” African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and Asian students, according the lawsuit.

The student says they’re bringing the action to challenge ICE’s illegal termination of their SEVIS record under the Administrative Procedure Act and the Declaratory Judgment Act, but isn’t challenging the revocation of their visa. The student is also suing on Fifth Amendment due process grounds, alleging that the defendants terminated their SEVIS record based on improper grounds without prior notice and without providing an opportunity to respond.

There are “hundreds, if not more” F-1 students nationwide whose SEVIS records were “abruptly and unlawfully” terminated by ICE last week, the lawsuit says.

Doe, who hails from a predominantly Muslim country, says they’re using a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation by the government, and of harassment or blacklisting by third parties.

Doe seeks an order to vacate and set aside DHS’s termination of their SEVIS status and restore their record, and award reasonable attorney fees and costs.

Doe was joined on Monday by “C.S.,” a foreign national who until recently was in lawful F-1 student visa status, who filed a proposed class action complaintagainst Noem and DHS in the Western District of Pennsylvania.

C.S., who claims to be a “bona fide student” in that district who is pursuing a “full course of study,” says that DHS terminated their SEVIS record based on a criminal records check.

C.S. concedes that they were previously charged with disorderly conduct and public drunkenness, and was arrested and detained for less than a day—but that soon after was released with the charges dropped, and has “never been convicted of any crime.”

By terminating C.S.’s SEVIS record, DHS terminated the student’s F-1 visa and, in turn, placed them “out of lawful immigration status,” C.S. alleges.

C.S. says their case focuses on “one predominating issue"—whether the defendants have adopted an unlawful policy of terminating SEVIS records “based on student interactions with law enforcement that as a matter of law do not interfere with a student’s ‘normal progress toward completion of a course of study.’”

C.S. is also suing under the Administrative Procedure Act and also asserts a violation of due process guarantees under the Fifth Amendment.

Spokespeople for DHS and ICE didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the California and Pennsylviania lawsuits.

The Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild represent Doe. The Law Office of Adrian N. Roe PC represents C.S.

The cases are Student Doe #1 v. Noem, C.D. Cal., No. 5:25-cv-00847, complaint 4/5/25 and C.S. v. Noem, W.D. Pa., No. 2:25-cv-00477, complaint 4/7/25.