A federal judge in St. Paul ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tuesday to reinstate the legal status of a Metropolitan State University student from Thailand.
The order from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan in the case of Rattanand Ratsantiboon marks the first intervention by a federal judge into ICE’s termination of the legal status of Minnesota’s international students. Dozens of international students in Minnesota and around the country have seen their legal status terminated in recent weeks in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which governs whether they are lawfully present in the United States.
David Wilson, an attorney for Ratsantiboon, said his client was “very relieved” by the judge’s order. Ratsantiboon’s status has once again been activated, and he can continue going to school and be considered lawfully present, Wilson said. “It’s a very positive step,” Wilson said. “But it is just the first step. This matter is going to go on for some time.”
Ratsantiboon, a 31-year-old nursing student at Metro State, learned that ICE terminated his legal status on March 28 after his name emerged in a criminal records check, and filed a lawsuit on April 8. Ratsantiboon has two driving infractions from 2018: a petty misdemeanor careless driving violation and a gross misdemeanor drunk-driving conviction.
“Ratsantiboon stands to lose his lawful status in his present country of residence, a semester’s worth of course credits, and future career prospects,” Bryan wrote. “By contrast, the temporary nature of the requested relief poses minimal harm to Defendants.”
Bryan issued a 14-day emergency temporary restraining order, and ordered ICE to reinstate Ratsantiboon’s status retroactive to March 28 and refrain from taking any further action against his legal status or visa.
According to court filings, Ratsantiboon paid more than $7,000 in tuition for the spring semester and is scheduled to take final exams in late April and May. In an affidavit to the court, he wrote that he was “embarrassed” by his drunk-driving conviction and that he had completed his probation and all of its requirements. He wrote that he worried he would be deported or barred from entry to the United States if the judge did not take action.
“I have been progressing for years in America,” he wrote. “I studied English, became proficient enough to attend college, and finally have found a calling that suits me. My family has supported me all these years, and paid thousands in tuition so I can eventually graduate with a nursing degree. The uncertainty of my status has made it very difficult to study.”
Ratsantiboon said he was scared he would have to drop his courses for the semester if the judge did not intervene.
“If I’m not able to complete the semester, all this money, time, and energy will have been lost,” he wrote. “I’ll have to redo everything in the future which means I may never accomplish my goal.”
Ratsantiboon described debilitating fear since ICE terminated his status.
“Ever since I found out that ICE terminated my SEVIS, I’ve been consumed by fear and anxiety every moment of the day,” he wrote. “I’ve been plunged into uncertainty about my future. I don’t know if I’ll be detained and deported. I don’t know if I’ll have to figure out how to start my life all over again in a different country. I don’t know what to do.”
In his order, Bryan said that Ratsantiboon would face “irreparable harm” without temporary relief.
The termination of Ratsantiboon’s legal status “renders him immediately ineligible to attend classes and sit for his final examinations,” Bryan wrote. “Ratsantiboon thus faces the imminent prospect of losing credit for the coursework he has thus far performed. In addition, the termination of Ratsantiboon’s SEVIS record forces him to live in uncertain legal status while he pursues this matter, which can constitute a separate irreparable harm.”
In his order, Bryan noted that “nonimmigrant status,” a category that includes international students, can be revoked only for limited reasons: if the person had received a waiver, and that waiver was revoked; if a private bill has been introduced to grant that person permanent resident status; or if notice has been published in the Federal Register that the person’s status will be revoked due to national security or public safety reasons.
“None of those three circumstances appear to be present in this case,” Bryan wrote. “An agency’s unexplained refusal to follow its own regulations effecting individuals’ procedural benefits poses a high probability that the agency is not acting in accordance with the [Administrative Procedure Act].”
Wilson said that he’s representing a handful of students who have all had “essentially a computer match to some kind of contact with the state court system.” Even in some cases where a charge was dismissed or the case was resolved, students are seeing their status terminated, he said.
In one of his cases — that of University of Minnesota grad student Ziliang Jin — his client had a dismissed charge of driving with a suspended license, on top of a few parking tickets and a speeding ticket. He said the government is not being clear what it is relying on in its determination to terminate students’ status. “That’s part of the problem,” he said.
He described Trump’s efforts to terminate student status as a “digital deportation movement,” and criticized the administration’s efforts to change the rules without notice.
The government “unilaterally” taking away something people depend on, without providing an opportunity for those people to argue their side or be heard, is “anti-American,” Wilson said.
A hearing regarding whether to extend Ratsantiboon’s relief, and if so, for how long, is scheduled for April 28.
