Daniel Zhao

Four international students in Connecticut  — including two Yale graduate students — are suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for “unlawfully terminating” their student status records.

In a class action lawsuit filed on Thursday, the students — represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut — argued that the DHS did not provide “any meaningful explanation” for the terminations, violating the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act, which legally guard against “arbitrary” federal agency actions.

“These are hardworking and accomplished people who found out overnight that not only were their educations and careers and dreams on hold, but the United States was apparently bent on kicking them out, without warning or any real explanation,” Elana Bildner ’06, an attorney at the ACLU who is representing the students, said.

The suit names Yan Du GRD ’25 and Mengni He GRD ’27, both Chinese citizens, as well as two graduate students at the University of Connecticut, as the plaintiffs. Each of the four students was notified that their status record had been terminated in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, a federal database of students on F-1 and other non-immigrant visas. 

Once a SEVIS record is deleted from the database, which is often referred to as “termination,” a student immediately falls out of status and risks deportation or future visa denials unless they depart the U.S. quickly or regain lawful status.

Du, a sixth-year doctorate student, was notified on April 4 by Yale’s Office of International Students and Scholars that her status record was terminated in SEVIS, according to the complaint filed in lawsuit. Yale later informed Du that the reason for the termination was “otherwise failing to maintain status,” the complaint notes.

Ozan Say, director of Yale’s Office of International Students and Scholars, declined to comment on the ACLU lawsuit. 

Du told the News that she was “shocked” at the termination because she “didn’t have any violation within the U.S.” and had never had any interaction with police before. She said she has an F-1 visa that is supposed to be valid until 2028.

“I know that there are some students who have dismissed cases or have a minor misdemeanor, or something like that, but I didn’t even have those,” Du said. “We tried to identify what might be potential factors that might have triggered this termination, and we could find nothing of it.”

He, the other Yale plaintiff, is a fourth-year doctorate student. The OISS informed He on April 9 that her SEVIS record was terminated after she was identified in a criminal records check.

He was charged with a driving-related violation in New York in 2016, according to the lawsuit. The suit notes that He’s license was briefly suspended and that she paid a fine and completed programming. According to the lawsuit, she “has had no other interactions with law enforcement in the nine years since.”

On Thursday, the students’ attorneys filed a temporary restraining order, asking the court to keep the plaintiffs “at their pre-termination peaceable status” until the case concludes. If the order is granted, the students may be protected from being detained by federal immigration enforcement agents.

A federal judge signed an “order preserving injunction” later on Thursday, ruling that none of the four plaintiffs — nor any other Connecticut students whose F-1 status has been terminated — can be removed from Connecticut while the case is ongoing. Jaclyn Blickley, another ACLU attorney, described the order as “a victory.”

“Students who have had their status in SEVIS terminated can breathe a little easier knowing that while they wait for their status to be reinstated, they are not at risk of removal,” Blickley said.

The ACLU lawsuit was filed one day before the Trump administration abruptly announced that it would temporarily restore the records of thousands of international students in SEVIS, effectively reinstating their legal status in the U.S. Prior to the Friday announcement, the administration had canceled more than 1,500 student visas.

“We have not reversed course on a single visa revocation,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, wrote to the News. “What we did is restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked.”

A spokesperson from the ACLU told the News that as of 10 p.m. on Friday, not all students who had their F-1 statuses terminated in Connecticut saw them reinstated.

Say confirmed to the News on Friday that two Yale students impacted by SEVIS terminations have had their SEVIS returned to “active status.” On Saturday, Say wrote to the News that “the SEVIS records of the remaining two students have now returned to active status.”

While Bildner remains hopeful that the government will soon permanently reverse course, she noted that due to the constant wave of shifting decisions by the Trump administration, it is “too soon to tell.”

She noted the possibility that while some students may have had their legal status restored on Friday, they could still have their status terminated in the future, along with their visas.

Graduate students at Yale are eligible for up to $2,000 for litigation services causing financial hardship through the Dean’s Emergency Fund.

Update, April 27: This article has been updated with Ozan Say’s confirmation that the two Yale plaintiffs’ SEVIS status were returned to “active status.”