Federal judge to rule on Georgia international college students’ challenge to loss of school access

Attorney Charles Kuck speaks with reporters following a hearing on students immigration status being revoked Ross Williams Georgia RecorderA federal judge in Atlanta is set to rule on a complaint filed by a group of international college students who say the administration of President Donald Trump illegally and capriciously tried to take away their ability to investigation in the United States Following a Thursday hearing U S District Court Judge Victoria Calvert announced she will decide by the end of the month whether to issue a ruling protecting the students who include Georgia students studying at schools including the University of Georgia Georgia Tech Georgia State University and Emory University Last week Calvert issued a -day temporary order allowing the students to keep studying The students say they were not given any warning before being cut off from their Novice and Exchange Visitor Information System records or SEVIS which is maintained by U S Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and allows them to continue studying in the states The students say ICE did not tell them why their SEVIS statuses were revoked but a large number of suspect it was in relation to minor run-ins with law enforcement in the states sometimes years ago A large number of of the students overview misdemeanor charges including residents intoxication or reckless driving Attorneys for the students say none of them have been accused of any crime that could upshot in SEVIS suspension under ICE s own rules Much of Thursday s arguments dealt with whether Calvert s court is the right venue to deal with the plaintiffs who are not studying in Georgia Attorney David Powell with the U S Attorney s Office argued that each plaintiff has unique circumstances and their cases should be heard separately Attorney Charles Kuck representing the students explained it makes sense for the students to join their cases together because they all faced the same issue the unexpected revocation of their SEVIS records Kuck announced his office has heard from nearly people from across the country not presently involved in the circumstance but in similar situations as his clients and plans to file a class action lawsuit in the coming days Kuck stated there are at least lawsuits pending across the country and at least other courts have put temporary orders into place like the one Calvert issued last week When you think about it there s anywhere from to maybe of these students he revealed to reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing Do the courts and U S attorneys really want to defend lawsuits They re going to lose every single one of them because the things we talked about at present weren t about the individuals they were about the group And clearly the individual is going to be protected in this So we re going to bring a class action and try to protect the whole group The post Federal judge to rule on Georgia international college students challenge to loss of school access appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta