Twin Cities international students beat DHS in federal court
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Following lawsuits, immigration authorities on Friday restored the legal status of two Twin Cities international students.
The Department of Homeland Security restored records in the government’s Student Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, for Rattanand Ratsantiboon and Ziliang Jin.
DHS terminated the SEVIS records of both men after a criminal background check found that Jin had a series of traffic citations and Ratsantiboon had been convicted of drunk driving in 2018.
Ratsantiboon is studying nursing at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul. Jin is working on a master’s degree in geographic information science and cartography at the University of Minnesota.
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“The resolution of the case, by this stipulation is that it’s as if this never occurred. So really from their standpoint it's just been a bad dream,” said immigration attorney David Wilson, who represents both men.
The agreements require DHS to reactivate the students’ SEVIS records retroactive to the dates that they were terminated “such that there is no gap or lapse” in their records.
In separate decisions in April, two federal judges ruled in favor of the men and said that they were likely to succeed in their legal challenges against DHS.
Wilson said that government officials cross-referenced student visa data with the National Crime Information Center and performed a wholesale deletion of student visitor records.
“I think the government has recognized that [it] overreached,” Wilson said. “And then they realized ‘what have we done?’ and have tried to walk it back ever since.”
Wilson said that while the legal process was stressful for his clients, they learned that federal courts have power to stop overreach by the executive branch.
“If there’s ever been a good civics lesson for international students, this has been such a positive one,” Wilson added. “Our balanced government has accountability built into it, and they got to see it firsthand. Many of these individuals come from countries where that doesn’t really exist.”
Ratsantiboon and Jin were not put in immigration detention. But University of Minnesota grad student Doğukan Günaydın has been jailed for nearly two months. DHS is trying to deport the 28-year-old Turkish citizen over a 2023 DWI.
