WASHINGTON: More than 130 international students across the United States have joined a federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully canceling their visas, jeopardizing their legal status in the country, court documents show.
The students allege the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency abruptly and illegally terminated their status in the government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database, putting them at risk of arrest, detention and deportation.
The initial complaint was filed by 17 students on April 11 in the state of Georgia.
Since then, 116 more have joined them as the administration of US President Donald Trump pursues a wide-ranging immigration crackdown that has targeted foreign students, among many others.
Across campuses in the United States, international students have been scrambling as they have discovered their visas have been revoked, often for little or no reason, according to court documents and media reports.
The Georgia lawsuit names US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons as defendants and seeks to reinstate the revoked visas.
In the complaint, which does not identify the students by name “due to fear of retaliation,” the summaries offered for each of the 17 original cases reveal seemingly arbitrary cancelations, with each plaintiff giving their best guess as to what may have prompted them to be targeted.
Some pointed to minor traffic infringements, such as John Doe 2, a Chinese citizen pursuing an engineering doctorate at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
He was notified by his school that his visa was revoked after a criminal records check, but the violation was not specified. The student believes it may have been related to a traffic offense that was closed and, according to the filing, he has no other criminal history.
Another of the students, an Indian national at New York Institute of Technology, said he had been found not guilty of shoplifting, and the case was dismissed.
“Over the past week, visa revocations and SEVIS terminations have shaken campuses across the country,” the complaint says.
“The SEVIS terminations have taken place against the backdrop of numerous demands being made of universities by the federal government and threats of cutting off billions of dollars in federal funding.”
The suit also noted that students’ removal from the government database could jeopardize the individuals’ ability to reenter the United States in the future.
More than 130 students in US join federal lawsuit over revoked visas
https://arab.news/mz279
More than 130 students in US join federal lawsuit over revoked visas
- The students allege the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency abruptly and illegally terminated their status
- The initial complaint was filed by 17 students on April 11 in the state of Georgia
India accelerates free trade agreements against backdrop of US tariffs
- India signed a CEPA with Oman on Thursday and a CETA with the UK in July
- Delhi is also in advanced talks for trade pacts with the EU, New Zealand, Chile
NEW DELHI: India has accelerated discussions to finalize free trade agreements with several nations, as New Delhi seeks to offset the impact of steep US import tariffs and widen export destinations amid uncertainties in global trade.
India signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Oman on Thursday, which allows India to export most of its goods without paying tariffs, covering 98 percent of the total value of India’s exports to the Gulf nation.
The deal comes less than five months after a multibillion-dollar trade agreement with the UK, which cut tariffs on goods from cars to alcohol, and as Indian trade negotiators are in advanced talks with New Zealand, the EU and Chile for similar partnerships.
They are part of India’s “ongoing efforts to expand its trade network and liberalize its trade,” said Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institution.
“The renewed efforts to sign bilateral FTAs are partly an after-effect of New Delhi realizing the importance of diversifying trade partners, especially after India’s biggest export market, the US, levied tariff rates of up to 50 percent on India.”
Indian exporters have been hit hard by the hefty tariffs that went into effect in August.
Months of negotiations with Washington have not clarified when a trade deal to bring down the tariffs would be signed, while the levies have weighed on sectors such as textiles, auto components, metals and labor-intensive manufacturing.
The FTAs with other nations will “help partially in mitigating the effects of US tariffs,” Manur said.
In particular, Oman can “act as a gateway to other Gulf countries and even parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Africa,” and the free trade deal will most likely benefit “labor-intensive sectors in India,” he added.
The chances of concluding a deal with Washington “will prove to be difficult,” said Arun Kumar, a retired economics professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“With the US, the chances of coming to (an agreement) are a bit difficult, because they want to get our agriculture market open, which we cannot do. They want us to reduce trade with Russia. That’s also difficult for India to do,” he told Arab News.
US President Donald Trump has threatened sanctions over India’s historic ties with Moscow and its imports of Russian oil, which Washington says help fund Moscow’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
“President Trump is constantly creating new problems, like with H-1B visa and so on now. So some difficulty or the other is expected. That’s why India is trying to build relationships with other nations,” Kumar said, referring to increased vetting and delays under the Trump administration for foreign workers, who include a large number of Indian nationals.
“Substituting for the US market is going to be tough. So certainly, I think India should do what it can do in terms of promoting trade with other countries.”
India has free trade agreements with more than 10 countries, including comprehensive economic partnership agreements with South Korea, Japan, and the UAE.
It is in talks with the EU to conclude an FTA, amid new negotiations launched this year for trade agreements, including with New Zealand and Chile.
India’s approach to trade partnerships has been “totally transformed,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a press briefing following the signing of the CEPA with Oman, which Indian officials aim to enter into force in three months.
“Now we don’t do FTAs with other developing nations; our focus is on the developed world, with whom we don’t compete,” he said. “We complement and therefore open up huge opportunities for our industry, for our manufactured goods, for our services.”
