WASHINGTON: A class action lawsuit filed on Friday (Apr 18) asks a federal court to reinstate the legal status of international students who have been stripped of their visas in a Trump administration crackdown that has left more than a thousand fearful of deportation.

The suit filed by several American Civil Liberties Union affiliates seeks to represent more than 100 students in New England and Puerto Rico.

"International students are a vital community in our state’s universities, and no administration should be allowed to circumvent the law to unilaterally strip students of status, disrupt their studies, and put them at risk of deportation,” said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire.

At schools around the country, students have seen their visas revoked or their legal status terminated, typically with little notice.

About 1,100 students at more than 170 colleges, universities and university systems have been affected since late March, according to an Associated Press (AP) review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records. The AP is working to confirm reports of hundreds more students affected.

Students have filed other lawsuits arguing they were denied due process. Federal judges have granted temporary restraining orders in New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Montana, shielding students from efforts to remove them from the United States. 

Plaintiffs in the new lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Hampshire, learned without warning their F-1 student statuses had been terminated, leaving in doubt their ability to stay in the country and finish their studies, according to the complaint.

One of them, Manikanta Pasula of India, was on the brink of getting his master’s in computer science at Rivier University in New Hampshire and applying to remain in the country through a work programme for international students.

Hangrui Zhang of China had come to the US for a PhD programme in electronic and computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. Now, he cannot work as a research assistant, which was his only source of income, the complaint said.

The government did not give notice it is required to provide before terminating a foreign student’s legal status, the lawyers said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges.

In some high-profile cases, such as that involving Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, the Trump administration has cited involvement in pro-Palestinian activism as a rationale for deportation.

But colleges say most students affected by visa revocations played no role in those protests. Many are being singled out over minor infractions such as traffic violations that occurred long ago, and in some cases the reason is unclear, colleges say.