At a federal hearing in Oakland on Friday, dozens of college students and alumni, including a current Stanford student, received temporary restraining orders (TROs) to protect them against further action from the Trump administration after their visas were revoked in the past few weeks.
Senior District Judge Jeffrey White granted the orders to 40 plaintiffs at the Northern District of California in Oakland. A majority of the plaintiffs were students or recent graduates with either an academic (F-1) or an Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa, including students at Stanford, University of California, Berkeley and across the Bay Area.
The temporary restraining orders will grant the plaintiffs protection for an additional 14 days, as the federal court discusses the matter of imposing a nationwide injunction at a second hearing this Wednesday, which would give all individuals whose visas were revoked a TRO. The parties will appear in court on May 13 for a hearing to discuss a preliminary injunction, which would extend temporary relief for the plaintiffs past 14 days and until a full trial.
Throughout the country, judges are issuing more TROs for those affected by visa revocations. On April 18, a federal court in Georgia ordered a TRO for 133 student plaintiffs and that their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) status will be reinstated.
Nationwide, the Trump administration has revoked 4,700 visas, including F-1 and OPT visas. Nearly 2,000 of these visas were F-1 visa revocations, affecting around eight Stanford students, according to an April 14 update by the University.
On Friday, the Trump administration announced that it would reinstate all of these revoked visas as it creates a framework to address SEVIS revocations. This has already taken effect, as Stanford released on April 27 that seven students have had their visa statuses restored.
“By and large, we’ve actually seen courts be very responsive to these kinds of claims exactly because they have such massive consequences for people,” said Tyler Bishop J.D. ’20, who is also litigating against the Trump administration’s changes to elections.
Jesse Bless, an attorney representing 15 plaintiffs whose visas were revoked, including the current Stanford student, said that “almost all” of the plaintiffs “have had a brief run-in with the law… There’s an arrest or something, or a citation.”
Bless said that one of his clients had his visa revoked following a citation for catching two more fish than allowed at a pond in New Jersey. Another had been using an unauthorized speedometer in his car.
Bless described his clients as panicked, uncertain and scared because of their changed status, with one leaving the country after having been notified.
“The idea that you can uproot somebody’s entire life based on something so minor, something so small, is really antithetical to the idea of who we are as a country,” Bishop said. “They’ve planned their entire lives around being able to be here and to study and to contribute to our society and to our schools.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys are still hoping to receive a preliminary, and a potential nationwide, injunction to ensure students do not face any consequences because of the period in which they lost their legal status.
“One, the government could change its position tomorrow morning,” said Johnny Sinodis, an attorney representing several plaintiffs in the case. “But two, the [new visa reversal policy] doesn’t take into account the fact that there’s a gap now for all of these individuals, of their OPT and of their F-1 status.”
While the plaintiffs have received temporary protection and the Trump administration is planning to restore all previously canceled visas, Bless noted the legal battles have taken a toll on all parties affected.
“The trauma to these families was overwhelming,” Bless said, who previously worked at the Department of Justice. “We’re actually spending a lot of government money fighting losses. I’m not in the government anymore, but I think judges would appreciate it if we work together to find a solution.”
Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Kurlan and chief of the Civil Division for Northern California Pam Johann, who defended the U.S. government in the case, declined to comment. Stanford Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic also declined to comment.
Siddharth Bhatia ’28 contributed reporting.