The lawsuit names Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, and Robert Lynch, the director of ICE’s Detroit field office.

The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment. Carolyn Ann Almassian, the attorney representing all three defendants, also did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by The State News, comes amid the Department of Homeland Security's recent ramping up in the termination of students’ records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). Across the country, colleges have reported hundreds of international students’ SEVIS records being terminated for widely varying reasons.

MSU said Friday that it is aware of 12 international students whose SEVIS records were terminated, although there may be more. MSU is not being contacted by the Department of State when a student record is terminated, meaning it can’t know about a termination until the affected student contacts the university, MSU spokesperson Amber McCann said.

The students, represented by East Lansing attorney Adriana Klemish, are demanding that the court require the Department of Homeland Security to reinstate their SEVIS records or provide them with a reasonable period to maintain their statuses.

The students are not contesting the department’s revocation of their F-1 visas, which the U.S. Department of State has the legal right to do. What they are challenging is the Department of Homeland Security terminating students’ visa records within SEVIS.

The F-1 student visa refers only to the document in a foreign passport that allows an international student to enter the U.S. Typically, even if a student’s visa is revoked by the federal government, that student is permitted to continue their studies and their SEVIS record would be deleted after leaving the country. 

The department’s policy guideline states that visa revocation is not a cause for termination of a student’s SEVIS record, the complaint says.

The MSU student, a 27-year-old doctoral student in engineering from China, learned in early April that his SEVIS record had been terminated. The complaint states the reason given by the department was "Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked."

In December 2024, the student, who entered the U.S. in 2023 with plans to graduate in 2030, faced assault and battery charges after a physical altercation with another person in a campus laboratory. The suit claims those charges came after his attacker made false allegations against him.

After being temporarily suspended from MSU during an investigation into the incident, the university cleared him of any wrongdoing and the criminal charges were dismissed Monday. A day after the student requested his SEVIS record be transferred back from the Michigan Language Center, where he is currently enrolled, the Department of Homeland Security terminated his record.

The complaint argues that the department had no legal right to terminate the student’s record since he had never been convicted of a violent crime with a potential sentence of more than a year, a disqualifying offense, nor did he ever violate U.S. immigration law. 

The lawsuit also claims, "based on recent reporting, on information and belief," that the wave of SEVIS terminations has been driven by the Department of Government Efficiency, President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting initiative spearheaded by Elon Musk. It draws parallels between reports of DOGE erroneously claiming large savings and the SEVIS terminations, which it characterized as "rife with ‘administrative error’ and absent all due process."

Oral arguments will be heard before Judge Jane Beckering in Grand Rapids on April 22. 

A similar lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, representing two students from the University of Michigan and two from Wayne State University, against the Department of Homeland Security.