Hunter
05/09/25
The attorney for four University of Iowa international students suing the Trump administration for unlawfully changing their status from “active” to “terminated” complied with a judge’s order to identify the students instead of referring to them as “John Doe #1-#4.”
Katherine Mellow Goettel, a University of Iowa law professor specializing in immigration, is representing the students. She argued the students wished to remain anonymous because revealing their identities increases their chances of being arrested, detained or removed from the country. They also claimed that being publicly identified would discourage them from pursuing the case.
Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger extended a temporary restriction against the Department of Homeland Security’s termination of the students’ status. DHS was told not to do so unless there was a valid reason and a proper proceeding was conducted to the students could review and respond to evidence.
The students’ status was terminated due to having criminal records. Three of them had OWI’s, while the other had a disorderly conduct and a number of driving violations.
Attorney Goettel said the students cannot be convicted of a crime of violence carrying a potential sentence of more than a year, and none of them met that threshold. She also claimed the government is trying to subvert their own regulations in trying to terminate visas of students with any criminal history of even minor interaction with law enforcement.
The judge has yet to rule on the preliminary injunction.