Recently, the U.S. government has stepped up efforts to cancel visas and deport foreign students and researchers, with Chinese students, who have a large base, among the worst affected. In this context, four Chinese students from the University of California, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University and other schools filed a lawsuit against the U. S. Government last week.
Zhu keliang, a lawyer in charge of the case and head of the Silicon Valley Office of Deheng law firm, said in an interview with a reporter from the global times on the 16th that, the vast majority of students whose visa status was recently revoked were Chinese mainland, making the action“Unprecedented” and racist. In this context, the lawsuit aims not only to safeguard the personal rights and interests of the four plaintiffs, but also to provide legal protection for more international students who may be affected.
The panic over the mass cancellation of international student visas in the United States continues. As of 9 pm Mit? time on April 12,965 international students and fresh graduates from 188 US universities had had their legal visas revoked, US media reported. The actual total is expected to be higher as some universities did not provide exact numbers. Earlier on April 9, China’s Ministry of Education issued the No. 1 warning for studying abroad in 2025, reminding overseas students to do a good security risk assessment and enhance their awareness when they choose to study in relevant states in the US.
In the past, visa cancellations were mostly individual cases, such as committing a felony or failing to maintain full-time student status, and even in such cases, the students involved would receive advance notice, Zhu said, and the right to appeal to the immigration court. But this time things are very different. “This is not an isolated case. We’re hearing about hundreds and thousands of cases right now, and the real number is probably much higher. Sometimes the U.S. government gives a reason, sometimes we don’t know what the reason is, and sometimes it’s just a traffic ticket,” he said, “The only pattern I can see is that this time it is overwhelmingly Chinese mainland students.”
Zhu Keliang told the global times that after filing a complaint with the court on the 11th, he and his team filed an application for a“Temporary injunction” with the court on the 15th, local time, a judge has recently been asked to declare illegal the wholesale cancellation of student visas by the US government and issue a ruling ordering the US government to reinstate the visas and status of the affected students.