The ACLU of Michigan announced Thursday it had filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of four international students attending Michigan schools whose student visa status was revoked.

The lawsuit includes a request for an emergency injunction; and asks the court to reinstate the legal status of the students so they can complete their studies in the United States. The defendants named in the case are Kristi Noem, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement; and Robert Lynch, field office director of Detroit, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This is one of the latest developments in circumstances taking place over the past few weeks, after universities across the country discovered some of their international students' visas had been terminated.  

University of Michigan had stepped up review of its student visa status reports in the government's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), and through those efforts learned some of its students and recent graduates were affected. Wayne State University, Michigan State University and Central Michigan University also reported international student visa revocations among some of their students. 

While the reported cases involve a small number of the nearly 38,000 international students studying in Michigan, or even on an individual campus, they got attention because of the similar instances across the country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said March 27 that at least 300 student visas across the country had been revoked by that point.

The ACLU lawsuit specifies two students at Wayne State University and two students at University of Michigan whose student status was pulled from SEVIS.

"Instead of being notified by DHS or another government agency, Plaintiffs each received an email from their respective school informing them that the school learned during their periodic check of SEVIS records that the Plaintiff's student status had been terminated," the lawsuit said.

In its press release, the ACLU claims the termination steps "violates the students' due process rights because the government is required to provide advance notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond when taking such action." 

In addition to attorneys from the ACLU of Michigan, the plaintiffs in the case are represented by ACLU cooperating attorneys from the law firms Pitt, McGehee, Palmer, Bonanni & Rivers and Abrutyn Law.