International students win another legal decision against Trump administration’s immigration actions

A federal judge in Atlanta ordered the Trump administration on Friday to maintain the legal status of current and former international college students who were legally admitted into the United States for school only to have their status suddenly revoked The preliminary injunction by Judge Victoria Marie Calvert of the Northern District of Georgia was anticipated after she issued a temporary restraining order in favor of the plaintiffs last month A federal attorney for the administration leaders named as defendants including Attorney General Pam Bondi produced no evidence to justify revoking the plaintiffs status under the Aspirant and Exchange Visitor Venture SEVIS Calvert wrote Defendants have had ample opportunity to provide the court with additional information about the SEVIS terminations but have consistently failed to do so says her order which prohibits the leadership from repeating the revocations during the duration of the lawsuit Defendants failure to provide a single plausibly lawful explanation for its action is the exact circumstance contemplated by the arbitrary and capricious standard Calvert concluded that the students would likely win their circumstance which accuses the administration of acting in an arbitrary and capricious and unlawful way The anonymous plaintiffs include foreign nationals attending a Georgia college or university or doing post-graduate work the order says Another are in other states and their attorneys argued that the cases should be bundled to reduce their legal costs and the workload on the court system Calvert allowed all to proceed in this one development Calvert s order indefinitely extends the temporary restraining order she issued two weeks ago that required U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE to restore the plaintiffs visitor status The agency s prior revocation of the students status stripped them of the right to work and would have barred them from re-entering the country if they left to visit home Their attorney Charles Kuck argued it would have caused irreparable harm that outweighed the harm to the executive and the judge agreed Assistant U S Attorney R David Powell failed to convince her that President Donald Trump s administration would face irreparable harm from a ruling against the cabinet that would interfere with the executive s right to control immigration Calvert s order is the latest legal setback for the president s immigration strategy after a string of court decisions favoring foreign students whose visitor status was similarly revoked without notice or explanation A federal judge in Washington D C also in recent days accused the Trump administration of arbitrary and capricious actions During last week s hearing on this preliminary injunction Powell revealed ICE has been busy restoring students status with judges orders coming weekly daily and sometimes multiple per day The post International students win another legal decision against Trump administration s immigration actions appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta