Judges order DHS to reinstate status of two international students
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Federal court judges in Minnesota this week have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to temporarily reinstate the status of two international students.
The two students, Rattanand Ratsantiboon and Ziliang Jin, separately sued DHS after learning their student visas were effectively terminated. Both men say the homeland security department violated their rights to due process.
According to court documents, DHS said the men were either identified in criminal records checks or for “failing to maintain their status.” Ratsantiboon, a Thai national studying nursing at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, had a 2018 drunk driving conviction. Jin, a citizen of China studying at the University of Minnesota, had a series of minor traffic violations.
In court filings granting temporary restraining orders issued earlier this week, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz and Judge Jeffrey Bryan said both men will likely succeed in their cases and in the meantime, face “irreparable harm” from the actions taken by DHS.
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Schiltz says Jin is in the middle of the semester and stands to lose the $17,739.23 in tuition he has already paid. “More broadly, plaintiff faces the loss of the many years and many thousands of dollars he has invested in pursuing his degree.”
Schiltz’s order also prohibits ICE from taking enforcement action against Jin, including detention and deportation.
Judge Bryan’s order granting Ratsantiboon’s request commands DHS to reinstate his student status and prohibits DHS from “taking any further action to terminate Ratsantiboon’s student status or revoke his visa.”
In his order, Schiltz accused DHS of not following the law.
“Indeed, the Court cannot imagine how the public interest might be served by permitting federal officials to flaunt the very laws that they have sworn to enforce.”
DHS has not yet filed a response, but will be able to argue its positions at hearings in each case scheduled for later this month.
Both Ratsantiboon and Jin are among at least two dozen international students in Minnesota who have been stripped of their status by the department.
Attorney David Wilson, who represents both men, says he expects more lawsuits filed by students stripped of their status will follow in the days to come.
Another U of M graduate student, Doğukan Günaydın, has sued the government after he was arrested and detained on March 27. Günaydın, a Turkish citizen, has remained in ICE custody since then and is petitioning for his release.
Aditya Harsono, an Indonesian citizen who graduated in 2023 with a master’s degree from Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, was arrested and detained by ICE late last month after his student visa was revoked.
