HANOVER — A federal judge in Concord on Monday restored the legal status of a Chinese citizen studying at Dartmouth.
Judge Samantha Elliott granted a preliminary injunction preventing the government from terminating the F-1 student status of Xiaotian Liu, a doctoral student in computer science, on Monday. The order is to “remain in effect until further order of the court,” Elliott wrote in her order.
Liu may now continue his studies throughout the remainder of his lawsuit, according to a Monday evening news release from the ACLU of New Hampshire, which is representing Liu.
“We are thrilled that this court ruling means Xiaotian can continue researching what he loves — computer science — right here in New Hampshire,” Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, said in the release. “The court made clear today that no administration can circumvent the law to unilaterally punish students who have followed all of the rules and strip them of their legal status, disrupt their studies, and put them at risk of deportation.”
Liu, the ACLU and the law firm Shaheen & Gordon first filed the lawsuit on April 7 just days after Dartmouth informed Liu via email on April 4 that his student status had been terminated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The court first issued a temporary restoration of his status on April 10, at which point Liu was able to return to his studies.
Liu and his attorneys have argued that his F-1 student immigration status was terminated with no clear reason. He has no criminal record and has not participated in protests.
Elliott’s Monday ruling in Liu’s case comes after the government’s announcement late last week that it would reactivate the status of more than 1,000 people whose records had been terminated from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, a mandatory clearinghouse for international students established after 9/11.