Hunter
07/14/25
The US Government says an Iowa District Judge has overstepped her boundaries when putting restrictions on them to protect four University of Iowa international students who had their status in the Student Exchange Visitor System terminated without explanation or due process.
The students sued the Department of Homeland Security, claiming that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s actions, which began in April, destabilized the lives of hundreds of international students. Days later, District Judge Rebecca Ebinger granted a temporary restraining order blocking the terminations. She said DHS and ICE could not threaten or deport the students without first showing evidence justifying their actions and without notifying the court first.
The Gazette reports that the Department of Homeland Security has asked the judge to alter the preliminary injunction by removing some aspects that are what they call “unnecessarily broad.” They add that the injunction as written prohibits them from arresting or detaining the students for any reason, including violation of a criminal statute.
The attorney representing the UI students claims the government is not trying very hard to comply with the judge’s order, specifically a technical limitation that prevents other schools and agencies from seeing the reversed terminations of their SEVIS status. Instead, they drafted a letter to the students about their backdated SEVIS statuses that they can provide to any agency that asks — putting “the onus on them.”
The full article is available at www.thegazette.com