FILE: Students and visitors walking through the UC Berkeley campus on a sunny autumn day.
Sundry Photography/Getty ImagesA UC Berkeley graduate student is suing the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid widespread visa revocations for international students at universities across California.
Zhuoer Chen, who is set to graduate from UC Berkeley in May with a master’s degree in architecture, is one of four plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit alleging that ICE’s sweeping effort to terminate the federal records of hundreds — possibly thousands — of international students occurred without notice, justification or legal basis.
“The terminations have occurred without any consistent rationale or legal justification and are entirely arbitrary,” the complaint states, describing the wave of record terminations in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System as “sweeping and unprecedented” with “nationwide impact.” SEVIS records are digital files maintained by the Department of Homeland Security that track international students’ visa status, academic enrollment and legal standing.
Chen, a Chinese national, has lived in the U.S. since 2017. She says she’s maintained full academic and immigration compliance and had been interning with a Bay Area housing firm while focusing her thesis on wildlife-conscious urban design. But on April 8, she was notified that her SEVIS record had been terminated. The complaint states that “the only known incident in her record is an arrest for an alleged physical altercation with her friend that resulted in no charges.”
The legal challenge — filed April 11 in the Northern District of California — seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to halt what the plaintiffs call “a pattern of SEVIS record terminations” that violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment and Equal Protection Clause. The plaintiffs, including a Carnegie Mellon University student, a University of Cincinnati student and a Columbia University graduate, also argue that ICE’s actions are inconsistent with its own guidance and regulations: Under federal law, SEVIS terminations are only permitted in limited circumstances involving national security or congressional action.
“Without notice, explanation, or any form of due process, ICE terminated the student status of individuals who have done nothing more than maintaining academic standing and complying with their visa requirements,” the suit alleges.
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Chen’s case comes as UC Berkeley confirmed that the number of affected community members has grown. As of 3 p.m. on April 10, a total of 23 individuals affiliated with the campus have had their visas or nonimmigrant status revoked by the federal government, according to Janet Gilmore, senior director of strategic communications at Berkeley. That includes five undergraduates, 10 graduate students, three recent graduates on optional practical training, and five on STEM OPT, according to Gilmore. Two of those cases were newly confirmed Wednesday: one undergraduate and one recent graduate in the standard 12-month OPT program.
In an earlier statement to SFGATE, Gilmore said, “The campus is supporting those impacted in accordance with its long-standing procedures for visa revocations. We are providing them with resources to navigate the process and are encouraging them to seek legal counsel for guidance.”
Chen’s case is one of many surfacing across California campuses. UC Merced confirmed four cases to SFGATE, while Stanford University confirmed eight. UC Santa Barbara acknowledged revocations but did not provide specific figures, and UC San Diego declined to confirm any numbers. And as of April 15, a spokesperson for the California State University system confirmed that 70 CSU students have been affected by visa revocations since the start of the year.
Many of the affected students, the complaint says, were not aware their status had changed until hearing from their universities. “The scope and speed of this operation have created widespread panic among students, many of whom remain in the United States unaware that their legal status has been silently stripped from them,” it reads.
Chen’s co-plaintiffs include Mengcheng Yu, a Carnegie Mellon graduate student whose SEVIS record was terminated despite “no criminal record, not even an arrest”; Jiarong Ouyang, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cincinnati whose prior charges were dismissed; and Gexi Guo, a Columbia graduate whose 2024 arrest was legally expunged before his visa was revoked without notice. They allege the effort has disproportionately targeted students of Chinese nationality and was carried out without any individual review or legal justification.
Although it’s unclear whether the SEVIS terminations of the plaintiffs are part of a coordinated federal strategy or a series of isolated decisions, they align with a nationwide increase in student visa revocations.
At a March 27 news conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the government had revoked more than 300 student visas this year as part of an effort to remove individuals suspected of engaging in activity deemed hostile to U.S. interests.
“Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio said. “Might be more than 300 at this point. Might be more. We do it every day.”
