Here’s how international students targeted by Trump get to stay in Indiana — for now
At least nine international students in Indiana nearly lost their ability to study, work and remain in the U.S. last month after the Department of Homeland Security abruptly revoked their student visa statuses. The federal agency reversed course almost a month later — but lawsuits challenging the actions are still moving forward.
The students were part of a broader purge by the Trump administration’s Homeland Security Investigations division, which targeted more than 1,800 international students across 280 U.S. colleges and universities.
The government deleted the F-1 visa records without giving the students notice or a chance to respond, students argued. That sparked a wave of at least 65 lawsuits nationwide and a patchwork of court orders blocking immigration authorities from detaining or deporting students.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed two lawsuits on behalf of the nine students enrolled at Indiana universities. The ACLU argued that the actions violated the students’ Fifth Amendment due process rights and the Administrative Procedures Act. The students held they hadn’t violated the conditions of their visas.
One case remains open in the Southern District of Indiana; the other is pending in the Northern District.
Late last month, universities informed students in the second case that their status as international students had resumed in the federal database.
“The last few weeks have been incredibly difficult for these students,” said ACLU Legal Director Ken Falk in a statement. “They have faced enormous financial, academic, and emotional hardship as a result of DHS’s actions.”
At least 7 Indiana universities affected
At least seven Indiana universities were impacted, according to a WFYI survey and court filings: Indiana University, IU Indianapolis, Purdue University, University of Notre Dame, Indiana Tech, Indiana State University, and University of Southern Indiana. The others did not respond or declined to comment.
The Indiana students originally filed one lawsuit, but a federal judge said they hadn’t provided sufficient evidence of “irreparable harm” caused by the loss of F-1 visa status. Judge James Patrick Hanlon of the Southern District of Indiana rejected the students’ request for a temporary restraining order and to block immigration authorities from detaining or deporting them. He said six of the seven students did not live in the court’s jurisdiction.
Those students — including five Chinese students at Purdue and one Nigerian student at Notre Dame — withdrew from the case and filed a second lawsuit in the Northern District of Indiana. In that case, the ACLU included two additional students who had not been parties to the original lawsuit.
Almost 25,000 international students studied at Indiana colleges and universities as of November 2022.
The first Indiana lawsuit
Jelena Liu, the sole remaining plaintiff in the first case, is finishing her second year of a two-year graduate program in human-computer interactions at IU Indianapolis.
She originally received F-1 status in 2016 to enroll at then-Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis for her undergraduate degree, according to court records.
“I am extremely nervous about my future,” she said in a sworn statement before her status was restored. “I am not leaving my home because I am concerned about the fact that I no longer have lawful status and may be subject to being detained.”
The amended complaint stated Liu is in good academic standing.
Without her F-1 visa and visa status, Liu would not be able to finish her program this year or obtain her degree. She could also have lost access to important medical care.
After the judge ruled that the students needed to show evidence of irreparable harm, Liu disclosed that she is transgender.
She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and depression, she said. She’s been receiving gender affirming care since 2020. If there is a lapse in treatment, according to her doctors, it could interfere with her transition and impact her depression further. She has regular medical testing and appointments.
“If I am detained and placed in removal proceedings, my transgender care could be interrupted,” she said. “I do not believe that I would receive comparable care in China to what I am receiving in Indiana. Generally, when a transgender person seeks gender-affirming hormones in China their parents must consent to the care for their child, even when the child is adult and I am not sure if my parents would consent. And doctors in China are more reluctant to provide gender-affirming medical care than in Indiana.”
In the complaint, the ACLU said that when Liu enrolled at IUPUI for her undergraduate degree, she studied a major chosen by her family, but she began to experience depression, in part because it wasn’t a good fit.
She dropped some courses in order to improve her mental health at the recommendation of her advisor. Liu later learned she had “mistakenly” dropped below the required number of classes necessary to maintain her F-1 status after returning from China on a winter break.
Liu’s visa was reinstated in 2018 for the first time, according to the lawsuit. She graduated in 2022 and enrolled in her graduate program in January 2024.
Liu wants to land an internship if she graduates from her program this year, but without F-1 status, it would be difficult to finish her education, advance her career, or realize her gender transition, she said.
“This has greatly increased my anxiety and distress.”
Then the government reversed course across the country. Liu’s status in SEVIS was set to active on April 26, according to court records.
The ‘Student Criminal Alien Initiative’
Liu’s visa status, like the eight other students suing in Indiana, had been reversed in a government tracking database called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS. It’s the database used by the government and universities to track F-1 visa recipients.
Emails from court records show the issue began on April 1 and took less than 24 hours after a Homeland Security investigator shared data with the State Department.
“In furtherance of our Student Criminal Alien Initiative, the attached letterhead memo and spreadsheet containing positive NCIC hits for 735 foreign students are respectfully submitted for your review and any action deemed appropriate,” wrote Andre Watson, the DHS investigator.
The next day, a State Department official responded, according to a redacted email.
“We’ve run the Delta data against our systems,” the official wrote to several people at both agencies. The official explained that they sorted the data by visa status, suggesting those without active status be deleted.
Then, 15 minutes later, an undisclosed division chief of Homeland Security Investigations wrote, “Please terminate all in SEVIS.”
Liu and the eight students in the second case temporarily lost their permission to study at Indiana universities as a part of the DHS initiative to expel students from the U.S.
Watson said in a legal filing mid-April supporting DHS’s lawyers that immigration authorities weren’t detaining any of the students in the lawsuits at the time and that they weren’t in deportation proceedings — including Liu.
Liu has no criminal history, according to the complaint, and maintains that she complied with all of the applicable visa rules and regulations.
Watson explained the agency’s view of Liu’s legal history. “[Her] information was run against criminal databases and was a verified match to an encounter with Customs and Border Protection on January 3, 2018, at a Port of Entry in Chicago.”
Watson shared no additional information in the filing about Liu’s encounter with CPB.
The agency ran countless international students’ records against criminal history databases, revoking their visa statuses despite not knowing the disposition of many of the charges or allegations.
Where things stand and what’s next
Students in the second lawsuit all received confirmation from their universities that their F-1 statuses had been reset to active in SEVIS.
On April 29, Judge Philip P. Simon of the Northern District of Indiana held a hearing with counsel for the students and DHS. During the hearing, the government confirmed on the record that all students in the second lawsuit had F-1 status.
Then Simon issued an order. He allowed the temporary restraining order to expire, but he did not end the case.
“It appears that Plaintiffs have secured the relief they asked this Court to provide,” he wrote. “That said, I decline to make any formal ruling on mootness at this time. Counsel for Plaintiffs noted that three Plaintiffs (Junde Zhu, Xilai Dai, and Sebastian Carbajal) separately received notification from the State Department that their F-1 visas had been revoked.”
The judge noted that an F-1 visa is distinct from F-1 status, so he sees their revocations as separate issues.
“The Court leaves to the Parties to sort out whether this issue constitutes a separate prayer of relief and whether I have jurisdiction to decide that issue,” he said.
Since then, there have been no updates to the second case.
Liu’s case also remains open. On April 30, attorneys for DHS noted in a legal filing that Liu’s SEVIS status had also been reinstated. The agency’s attorneys asserted Liu was not in removal proceedings nor was she detained. They also rejected that the federal government’s actions caused Liu irreparable harm and asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice.
The ACLU said in a court filing on May 12 that they were still working with DHS attorneys “to determine the effect of any changes on the plaintiff’s legal status and on her need for preliminary relief. These conversations are ongoing.”
They requested an extension of time to continue the conversations and said that DHS’s attorneys did not object.
That same day, Judge Tim A. Baker of the Southern District of Indiana issued an order extending the time for the ACLU to provide additional support for a preliminary injunction in Liu’s case. They now have until May 26, 2025.
Despite restoring student visa statuses and moving to dismiss lawsuits across the country, the Trump administration indicated that some of the students impacted by the recent cancellations could still lose their visas in the future.
A Justice Department lawyer told a federal judge in Washington on April 25 that immigration officials are developing a new system to review and revoke student visas going forward.
WFYI is reporting on the local impacts of immigration policy. If you want to share your story or have a tip, contact WFYI reporter Zak Cassel at [email protected].
