By RAPID CITY — Priya Saxena was staying up late to read comments about her doctoral dissertation around 1 a.m. on April 7 when she saw the message in her email.
“I was numb at the time,” she testified through tears Tuesday, May 13 in a Rapid City courtroom, where she continued her fight to remain in the country.
The email from U.S. immigration officials said her visa was revoked. Saxena called some friends and holed up in her bedroom.
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“I was scared,” she said, “and I had no idea what to do next.”
Her fear was based on the realization that “I could be deported at any time,” she said.
A student from India, she was less than a month away from graduating with master’s and doctoral degrees from South Dakota Mines, something she’d been working toward for five years.
But on Thursday, May 15, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction allowing her to stay in the country while her case against the federal government plays out.
The injunction was an extension of two previous temporary restraining orders that barred the Department of Homeland Security from interfering with Saxena’s ability to graduate from Mines.
Priya Saxena, center, receives congratulations from her attorney, Jim Leach, foreground, after graduating with a master’s and doctoral degree from South Dakota Mines on May 10, in Rapid City. South Dakota Searchlight photo by Seth Tupper.
Criminal records check triggered visa revocation
Her visa revocation was triggered by a criminal records check of international students undertaken by the Trump administration. The check turned up a four-year-old misdemeanor traffic conviction against Saxena for failing to pull over for an emergency vehicle in Meade County.
The check also turned up a charge of driving under the influence against her from the same 2021 traffic stop, but her blood tested within the legal limit and the charge was dismissed. She had disclosed those legal matters to immigration officials when she obtained her most recent visa in 2022.
The criminal records check was part of a broader action by the Trump administration against more than 1,000 international students nationwide, not only for items appearing on their records, but also for activity the administration described as “anti-Semetic,” such as publicly protesting Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
The administration initially terminated students’ records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, which is used by colleges to verify and manage international student eligibility. Then the administration backtracked, leaving students such as Saxena with restored educational status, but in limbo with their visas and their future.
Saxena had booked a ticket back to India
Noem
Saxena testified that she decided to book a plane ticket to India and leave the country voluntarily, but then postponed the ticket and ultimately canceled it after speaking to a defense attorney in Rapid City, Jim Leach. Since then, they’ve sued U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — the former governor of South Dakota — and Noem’s agency. The lawsuit alleges it’s illegal for the government to instigate an immigration enforcement action against Saxena for something the government already knew about before it issued her current visa.
With her degrees now in hand and her visa not scheduled to expire until 2027, Saxena would like to apply for a program that allows international students to remain in the country and work in fields related to their degrees. Saxena now has a doctorate in chemical and biological engineering and a master’s in chemical engineering.
U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier first granted Saxena a temporary restraining order last month and extended it long enough for her to walk across the graduation stage and collect her degrees on at Mines on Saturday, May 10 — the same day Noem appeared at another South Dakota institution, Dakota State University in Madison, to receive an honorary degree and deliver a commencement address. Noem was met by hundreds of protesters outside that ceremony.
As Saxena was in court in Rapid City on May 13, Immigration and Customs Enforcement was conducting a “worksite enforcement action” in Madison, where the agency made eight arrests at two Madison businesses.
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Saxena’s restraining order was scheduled to expire at the end of this week. Her court hearing was about her request for a temporary injunction to stop the federal government from pursuing any further immigration enforcement proceedings against her while her lawsuit is pending. Schreier heard testimony and arguments.
Leach argued that Saxena needs protection from unlawful and unpredictable actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He referenced the agency’s widespread deportation efforts under President Donald Trump and its shifting policies.
‘Everybody’s afraid of Ice now’
“Everybody’s afraid of ICE now, and she’s afraid,” Leach said of Saxena.
Schreier
Schreier ruled that Saxena is likely to succeed on the merits of her case against Homeland Security. Schreier ordered the department not to revoke Saxena’s student visa or her federal record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. Schreier also ordered the department not to take any action to remove Saxena from the district of South Dakota or to deprive her of her freedom.
While she’s graduated, Saxena argued the government could jeopardize her ability to participate in an Optional Practical Training, or OPT, program normally available to doctorate graduates. Foreign students can get a 24-month extension for completing an OPT in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
Michaele Hofmann, an assistant U.S. attorney, said a temporary injunction would improperly restrain the government from taking further action if Saxena engages in additional criminal activity, or if Saxena violates the terms of her U.S. residency in other ways. Hofmann argued that if a temporary injunction is granted, it should be narrowly tailored to allow the government to act in response to those possibilities.
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Schreier didn’t see it that way.
“Saxena explained that if she is prevented from applying or participating in OPT, she would lose the opportunity to pursue areas of research proposed in her Ph.D. dissertation, thus derailing her future employment opportunities,” the judge wrote.
Schreier ruled that Saxena could suffer “irreparable harm” if her foreign student status is revoked again.
“Absent injunctive relief, Saxena’s career trajectory is jeopardized by the risk that defendants will once again arbitrarily terminate her (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) record,” Schreier wrote. “In such a scenario, Saxena would lose the ability to engage in post-graduate employment opportunities through OPT that she is entitled to enjoy as an F-1 nonimmigrant student.”