BOZEMAN — A complaint filed by the ACLU of Montana was filed today, along with a request for a temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction in federal court on behalf of two Montana State University graduate students who had their F-1 student immigration status revoked by the Trump administration on April 10, 2025.
The visas were revoked under the authority of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
An F-1 visa allows a full-time college student to live in the U.S. legally with proof of enrollment, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
According to a release from the ACLU of Montana, both of the graduate students have been pursuing their degrees at MSU, while reportedly staying compliant with all of their visa requirements, adding: "Plaintiff Roe has been working on his Ph.D. in electrical engineering/physics for the past six years, while Plaintiff Doe has been working toward her master’s degree in microbiology for the past three and a half years."
Both are reportedly only a matter of months away from obtaining their advanced degrees.
The organization says the students have no criminal convictions, immigration violations, and have never participated in "any protest in the United States or elsewhere." There was no mention of the third student whose visa was also revoked.
Other universities across the United States have reported international students' F-1 student visa status revoked, including John Hopkins University, University of Maryland, University of Colorado, University of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA, and Ohio State University.
