A US federal judge has barred the Trump administration from deporting a 21-year-old Indian whose student visa was cancelled just weeks before he was set to graduate.
Krish Lal Isserdasani is an engineering student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The April 15 order prevents the Department of Homeland Security from revoking the student visa or detaining Isserdasani who was expected to graduate with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering in early May.
His student visa was cancelled on April 4.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed last month that at least 300 visas have been revoked, adding that the department was targeting those who were involved in activities that "run counter" to US national interests.
The request for a temporary restraining order was brought by Madison attorney Shabnam Lotfi after Isserdasani's record was terminated in the government's Student and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVIS) database, the report added.
"He was given no warning, no opportunity to explain or defend himself, and no chance to correct any potential misunderstanding before his F-1 student visa record was terminated in SEVIS," the order said.
F1 visa is issued to international students who are attending an academic programme or English Language Program at a US college or university.
The Trump administration has revoked visas of hundreds of international students and detained roughly a dozen others on college campuses across the US, often without any warning or recourse for appeals.
Videos of some of the arrests, showing plain-clothes officers handcuff and arrest students near their homes, have gone viral and sent shockwaves through the international student community.
According to the order, Isserdasani was arrested on November 22, 2024, on suspicion of misdemeanour disorderly conduct after he and his friends got into an argument with another group of people after leaving a bar.
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne declined to charge Isserdasani in the case, and he never appeared in court, the report quoted the order.
Judge William Conley of the Western District of Wisconsin handed down the order, saying Isserdasani was not convicted of a crime, and his claim of wrongful visa termination had a "reasonable likelihood of success" in the courts. He set a preliminary injunction hearing for April 28.
Lotfi said that the order is believed to be one of the first national victories for international student visa holders whose records were terminated. About 1,300 students nationwide have seen their SEVIS records terminated abruptly.
"We're grateful that the rule of law and justice have prevailed," Lotfi's colleague, Veronica Sustic, said in an e-mail to the paper.
"The government has not provided any legal authority for these unlawful terminations of innocent international students' statuses, and we are pleased that the Court saw that."
Several international students who have had their visas revoked in recent weeks have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, arguing the government denied them due process when it suddenly took away their permission to be in the US.
The actions by the federal government to terminate students’ legal status have left hundreds of scholars at risk of detention and deportation. Their schools range from private universities like Harvard and Stanford to large public institutions like the University of Maryland and Ohio State University to some small liberal arts colleges.
In lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security, students have argued the government lacked justification to cancel their visa or terminate their legal status.
Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but colleges say some students are being singled out over infractions as minor as traffic violations, criminal record including some long in the past. Many of those targeted have participated in some form of pro-Palestinian activity. In some cases, students say it’s unclear why they were targeted.
