Those case of those 2-MSU graduate students, whose F-1 visas were revoked by Homeland Security found its way back into the Courtroom of Missoula Federal Judge Dana Christensen Tuesday. A lawsuit brought by the ACLU, Roe vs. Noem, challenged the student’s attempted deportation. Earlier, Judge Christensen granted an emergency restraining order, allowing the 2-MSU graduate students to remain the the country pending the outcome of a lawsuit.
The students, still unidentified, plan to graduate in this year–one is a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering and the other is working on a masters degree in microbiology. Neither have intentions of staying in the United States. Rather, they intend to use their education to better their home countries.
The defendants, the Department of Homeland Security, is asking Judge Christensen to dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice, but the ACLU argues that the reasoning of their action isn’t yet decided. That, has to do with Homeland Security’s termination of the Student & Exchange Visitor System–or SEVIS records.
The F-1 visa is for full-time students, who have no intention of becoming U.S. citizens. They are international students who are here only for the education. At MSU, it’s estimated that 400-students from 64-countries have F-1 visas. At the University of Montana, 145-students have F-1 visas and another 29 have J-1 visas from 50-different countries.
