In one of the first local instances of legal pushback against Trump administration deportations, a South Dakota doctoral student has received a reprieve for the time being. Without this, she would have been deported on a revoked visa.
Priya Saxena is a graduate student at South Dakota Mines and is the first case in the state of an international student having documentation revoked in the current administration despite having legal paperwork.
Saxena is a doctorate chemical and biological engineering student from India. She faced a deportation deadline of April 18 connected to a misdemeanor traffic infraction from 2021. Fines connected to that incident were paid in full.
According to court records, this week marked the most recent motion in the case.
District Judge Karen Schreier granted the temporary restraining order, and that remains in effect until May 2. For now, Saxena can remain in the country.
In response to the deportation order, Saxena has filed a lawsuit against Kristi Noem, former South Dakota governor and current head of the Department of Homeland Security, and Todd Lyons, director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which is a department within the DHS
The Trump Administration has cracked down on immigration across the country, but that has also extended in some cases to people in the nation legally on student visas.
Notably, it’s impacted those who were involved in pro-Palestine protests during the prior school year, raising First Amendment questions across the nation. Court records do not reference Saxena being involved in any political activism.
One example of a student deportation battle involves Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student in the nation legally who was detained by ICE. The Associated Press reports his attorney was told in no uncertain terms by ICE agents they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa.
There were no major protests of this kind reported in South Dakota. Despite this, immigration advocates are advising international students against leaving the country due to uncertainty over new policy.