CHICAGO (WLS) — More than 100 international students are celebrating a victory Tuesday after a lawyer representing the students says the Trump administration complied with a Georgia District Court Judge’s order to reinstate their student visas for now.
That group includes students from the University of Illinois, Western Illinois University, and the Indiana Institute of Technology.
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Many of those students were preparing for their graduation in the coming weeks, but instead, their attorneys tell the ABC 7 I-Team they were informed earlier this month that their F-1 visas to study and work in this country were terminated.
This ruling out of Georgia comes as hundreds of students across the country, including here in Chicago, have sued the Trump administration in hopes of having their visas restored.
Late last week, Georgia District Court Judge Victoria Calvert issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration, ordering the Department of Homeland Security to “reinstate [133 plaintiff’s] student status and [visa] authorization” by this afternoon.
Attorney Danielle Claffey, who represents the students, confirmed to the I-Team that the Trump administration had filed a notice of compliance with the court, just before the 5 p.m. EST deadline.
While that ruling is temporary as the case proceeds forward in court, Claffey believes the law is on her clients’ side.
“It’s not very difficult, legally, to understand what went wrong here and how these service terminations are just blatantly illegal,” Claffey said.
The only common denominator for most, but not all of the students is that they were accused of low-level charges, including misdemeanors and traffic offenses.
Claffey said none of the charges are legal grounds for revoking a student visa.
“They don’t follow how terminations are supposed to happen,” Claffey said. “There are very limited set of circumstances. In this case, wholly outside of the law.”
But the Trump administration has been clear: these students have lost their privileges.
“No one’s entitled to a student visa,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on April 10. “The press covers student visas like they’re some sort of birthright. No, a student visa is like me inviting you into my home.”
Federal judges nationwide have widely sided with students so far.
The I-Team found there have been at least 23 orders temporarily reinstating student visas or preventing students from being arrested while their cases are heard.
READ MORE | DePaul student to fight visa termination in court this week, his attorney says
That includes DePaul University student Vishnu Nali.
Nali moved from India to Chicago in 2023 to earn his master’s degree in business analytics, and is on track to graduate this June, according to his attorney Jeff Brown.
But after Nali learned his F1 student visa had been terminated earlier this month, he was one of the first local students to sue the Trump administration.
Brown said Nali’s case mirrors these other cases nationwide.
“There’s a homogeneity to these cases, they’re all very similar,” Brown explained. “The facts are very similar, and it’s frankly an outrage that the government has taken the position that it has making these biased-based accusations against students and obliterating their immediate futures.”
Nali was arrested by Chicago police for shoplifting last year, but the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office dropped the case.
Last week, a federal judge has ruled Nali can’t be arrested or deported while his court case proceeds forward, but his student visa status still hangs in the balance.
“He’s very anxious,” Brown said. “It’s emotionally traumatizing to him to go through this situation, not knowing what the ultimate result will be.”
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