HUNTINGTON – A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order allowing a Marshall University grad student to remain in the country after the Trump administration had revoked his legal status just weeks before his expected graduation.
U.S. District Judge Robert C. “Chuck” Chambers issued his memorandum opinion and order April 23 in the case filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia on behalf of Shival Nilesh Vyas, who recently received an email saying his F-1 visa was being revoked.
Chambers directed the federal government to restore Vyas’ valid active F-1 status, restore his valid F-1 student status, process his request for practical training and process and aware his Employment Authorization Document as would have occurred if defendants “had not engaged” in the actions described in Vyas’ complaint.
Chambers
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Chambers also says the government is prohibited from arresting, detaining or transferring Vyas out of the court’s jurisdiction or initiating removal proceedings against or deporting him.
The judge also scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing for May 7.
A spokesman for the ACLU-WV said the group “won’t stop fighting until his status is permanently restored.”
In his opinion and order, Chambers said Vyas is likely to succeed on his Administrative Procedure Act or procedural due process claim. Chambers also says his order is similar to others filed in similar cases across the country.
“During a time when students are supposed to be focusing on final exams, celebrating their accomplishments and searching for work opportunities, S.V. received an email … which threw his world into disarray,” the ACLU said of its April 18 filing on behalf of Vyas. “He later learned the action was being taken because he was ‘identified in a criminal records check.’”
In 2020, Vyas was charged with a misdemeanor traffic violation of operating under the influence in Indiana while studying at Purdue. He was sentenced to probation, which was terminated early as the result of good behavior and compliance.
“Having been identified in a criminal record check is not a lawful ground for termination pursuant to federal regulations,” ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks said. “Our client was not convicted of a crime of violence, nor was he convicted of a crime for which the potential sentence is more than one year, meaning that he categorically is not subject to termination of his F-1 status on those grounds.”
Sparks says the government has no authority to consider that misdemeanor in terminating his current visa, and even if the state did have that authority it would not be a lawful justification.
In his order, Chambers agreed.
“The record before the court suggests defendants’ actions were not in compliance … were arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with the law,” Chambers wrote. “Government agencies are generally required to follow their own regulations.
“The record before the court suggests that no conduct by Vyas constituted a status violation and none of the other circumstances which might justify a termination were present.”
Chambers also noted the timing of the matter.
“Less than three weeks from graduation from a two-year program, he faces a loss of academic progress in the absence of immediate relief,” Chambers wrote. “He cannot attend in-person classes due to the termination of his SEVIS (a centralized online Department of Homeland Security database to track and monitor compliance of international students) record. He cannot apply for OPT (Optional Practical Training), and he faces the threat of imminent deportation. …
“Here, plaintiff stands to lose academic progress and more while defendants face minimal risk of injury from temporary relief to maintain the status quo. As to the public interest, ‘the public undoubtedly has an interest in seeing its governmental institutions follow the law.’”
After the 2020 misdemeanor, Vyas left the United States and returned in 2023 to study at Marshall on a new student visa. He disclosed the previous charge when re-applying, satisfied all requirements and was permitted to re-enter the country under the new visa. He was in the process of applying for post-graduate work in the United States when he received the email ending his status.
Vyas, 28, says the experience has caused chaos for his education and career plans.
“I desperately want to complete my graduate degree and pursue work in the United States,” he said in an ACLU-WV press release. “It is clear this wasn't a decision based on my circumstance or experience.
“This was a predetermined outcome and they just said whatever needed to be said to justify it, even when it didn't apply to me.”
ACLU-WV Executive Director Eli Baumwell said international students and scholars are a vital part of “our nation’s universities, our economy, and our communities.”
“Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear that the Trump administration is simply taking the law into its own hands in its crusade against noncitizens,” Baumwell said. “Never before has a president taken such sweeping actions to revoke student visas, and that’s why we need the courts to step in and protect their rights to due process under the Constitution.”
Sparks agreed.
“It is fundamentally unfair to deny someone like S.V. the ability to finish his degree,” Sparks said. “Like so many other promising international students, he has traveled far, studied hard, paid top-touch tuition into the United States economy, and immersed himself into a foreign culture, only to be denied the credentials he has worked so hard to achieve right at the finish line.”
The complaint lists U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi as defendants.
Vyas is scheduled to graduate May 10, and he already has submitted his OPT application that would allow him to work in the United States on a temporary basis in employment related to his field of study.
“Vyas has not been permitted to attend in-person classes, a heavy burden as he attempts to finish his final semester of his graduate program,” the complaint states. “He also has not been able to apply for employment through OPT, which will leave him unemployed after graduation, at great personal and financial loss.”
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 3:25-cv-00261