University of Iowa international students settle case with ICE, DHS after status revoked

IOWA CITY — Eight months after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement abruptly terminated the status of four University of Iowa international students — and revoked visas for three of them without explanation — those students have settled the lawsuit they filed against the Department of Homeland Security.

The settlement — officially terminating the case Monday — followed months of argument and appeal from DHS and ICE attorneys, facing lawsuits from many of the 6,000-plus students cost-to-coast swept up in the “student criminal alien initiative.”

Despite appeals from the government, a judge hearing argument from the four UI students — including two Chinese-national undergraduates, a fourth-year UI doctorate student from India, and a UI master of public health graduate from India — granted them an early temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking the terminations and government threats of deportation and removal proceedings.

Those rulings compelled the government to back peddle, reverse, and “reset to active” the students’ records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS.

“The reactivation of the plaintiffs’ SEVIS records is retroactive to the date of their initial terminations, April 10, 2025, such that there is no gap or lapse in the plaintiffs’ SEVIS records,” according to the settlement, dismissing the case. “Although the SEVIS event history within plaintiffs’ SEVIS records may memorialize whatever modifications are made to their SEVIS accounts, the effect of this retroactive activation is as though the termination of the plaintiffs’ SEVIS records did not happen.”

Other government concessions spelled out in the settlement include an ICE commitment not to re-terminate the students SEVIS records based on any information in the National Crime Information Center record.

That information led to the UI students’ initial terminations — given all four had non-violent offenses like operating while intoxicated, driving without a valid license, or disorderly conduct — despite the law permitting termination only for “crimes of violence … for which a sentence of more than one year imprisonment may be imposed.”

ICE, according to the settlement, still can terminate a student’s SEVIS record if he or she engages in other unlawful activity going forward to fails to maintain their reactivated status.

The government also agreed that the termination and now reactivation of the UI students’ statuses won’t negatively impact their ability to seek benefits through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

“In the event USCIS issues a request for evidence, notice of intent to deny, or denial based in whole or part on the termination and reactivation of the plaintiffs’ SEVIS records … counsel for defendant agrees to cooperate with the plaintiffs’ counsel to ensure USCIS is aware of this stipulation and its terms in connection with its consideration or reconsideration of the plaintiffs’ benefits requests.”

This is a developing story. Check back for more details.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com