CONCORD, N.H. — An attorney from the US Department of Justice presented such a dizzying argument Tuesday about the status of a Chinese student at Dartmouth College that a federal judge suggested it sounded like something out of a Franz Kafka novel.
The only plaintiff in this case is 26-year-old doctoral student Xiaotian Liu, but his story illustrates a much broader situation affecting thousands of international students across the country, as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on foreigners and educational institutions.
Dartmouth notified Liu earlier this month that the college noticed his record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a federal database, had been terminated without warning. As a result, Liu would not be allowed to continue his PhD research or work as a research assistant, and he feared potential deportation.
While the US State Department handles student visas, which allow international students to enter the United States, the US Department of Homeland Security keeps tabs on the student statuses of more than 1.2 million foreign students, using the SEVIS database.
Glenn Girdharry, an assistant director with the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, said during a hearing Tuesday that Liu’s nonimmigrant F-1 student status remains active even though the government terminated his record in the SEVIS database.
Girdharry did not provide a clear answer when asked why the government would maintain a SEVIS record that is seemingly inconsistent with a student’s actual status. He claimed it was Dartmouth, not the federal government, that decided to halt Liu’s doctoral research— but Liu’s attorneys contend that claim isn’t credible.
Gilles Bissonnette, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, told reporters the SEVIS system is critical for colleges and universities to communicate with the federal government about when international students are authorized to study here and when they aren’t, so schools reasonably interpreted the abrupt termination of SEVIS records for Liu and others as indicating they had lost their student status.
“The government here dropped a grenade on colleges and universities in early April throughout the United States, and we know what the motivation was, because they reflected it on the SEVIS records themselves: it was to terminate student status,” Bissonnette said. “That’s why we’re here.”
A spokesperson for Dartmouth said Wednesday the college has no additional comment at this time. When this lawsuit was initially filed, Dartmouth said it is committed to helping its community members who have been impacted by the SEVIS records changes.
Girdharry argued during Tuesday’s hearing that the court should not grant a preliminary injunction. He cited two seemingly contradictory rationales: On the one hand, Girdharry said there is no controversy before the court because Liu’s status wasn’t actually terminated. On the other hand, he said Liu still had an administrative remedy available because he could ask the government to reinstate the student status that the government claims is still active.
US District Judge Samantha D. Elliott called out the apparent contradiction, suggesting it was “a bit Kafkaesque.”
Elliott asked why the government had terminated Liu’s SEVIS record and what practical implications the termination has for Liu’s rights and privileges. She pressed for straight answers, telling Girdharry multiple times that he had not responded directly to what she asked.
Elliott also noted that Girdharry’s core argument was based on an unsupported assertion: While a written declaration from a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the Student and Exchange Visitor Program “has never claimed” it terminated Liu’s status, that’s not the same as saying his status had never been terminated, she noted.
Elliott asked whether the government defendants would sign a stipulation agreeing that Liu could continue his doctoral research while this litigation unfolds, but Girdharry said he doesn’t believe his clients would be willing to do so. Girdharry said repeatedly that terminating the records was within DHS’s lawful discretionary authority.
The incident that appears to be the basis for the Trump administration’s termination of Liu’s SEVIS record dates back to January 2022, when Liu was denied re-entry to the United States to resume his studies at Wake Forest University.
Liu, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest in 2020, had taken a “gap” semester while pursuing his master’s degree. He sought to return for the spring 2022 semester and had a valid visa, but didn’t realize he also needed to request that his F-1 student status be reinstated, according to his legal complaint.
Liu went back to China, sorted out the paperwork problem, returned to Wake Forest in summer 2022, graduated with a master’s degree in 2023, enrolled in the PhD program at Dartmouth, and traveled internationally multiple times in 2024, according to his complaint.
But because US Customs and Border Protection had denied Liu entry into the country in January 2022, the Trump administration updated his SEVIS record in April 2025 to “terminated,” according to the ICE official’s declaration.
Liu’s attorneys said he hasn’t committed any crime or traffic violation, hasn’t joined in any protest, and doesn’t understand why the federal government would target him.
Liu, who is studying computer science, told reporters it’s scary to think how the current situation might prevent him from completing his PhD at Dartmouth, so he’s eager to resolve this matter and resume his research without a cloud of uncertainty.
Bissonnette said the idea that the government would take a non-criminal administrative error that was quickly resolved as the basis to interfere years later with Liu’s life illustrates the cruel and inhumane way the Trump administration is treating international students.
“I think people need to understand what’s going on right now,” he said. “People (are) scared not only about their research and academic careers, but (they are) scared about now losing their liberty, when they have done absolutely nothing wrong.”
Liu’s attorneys from the ACLU and Shaheen & Gordon have also filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to represent more than 100 similarly situated college students in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico.
Elliott, who previously issued a temporary restraining order to protect Liu’s interests, extended that order through Friday. She said she will issue a written decision within the next few days on whether to impose a preliminary injunction to protect Liu’s interests for the next phase of his litigation.
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.