QuickTake:

Federal attorneys argue that a British student at the University of Oregon no longer needs a preliminary injunction now that her student visa has been restored. But the student’s attorneys are still seeking court action. 

A federal judge has extended a temporary restraining order that blocks the federal government from deporting an international University of Oregon graduate student. 

At a Monday hearing in Eugene, U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane extended the 14-day temporary restraining order to last through May 9. The order, originally issued April 21, prevents the federal government from starting removal proceedings against the British student, who is named as a Jane Doe in court records to protect her privacy. 

The order gives the judge more time to consider arguments on whether to grant a preliminary injunction, which extends those conditions while the case continues in court. 

Federal attorneys argue in court filings that the preliminary injunction is no longer needed and moot because the government restored the student’s visa status, along with the visa status of hundreds of other students nationwide after Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued new guidance. 

“Plaintiff has already received the relief she seeks and her record will remain in active status absent injunctive relief,” says the government’s response to the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

The court granted the temporary restraining order on April 21, which allows her lawsuit to go forward. On April 23, the federal government restored the student’s visa record. Two days later, on April 25, ICE started to reverse the terminations for hundreds of students in similar situations, court filings show. 

The student is one of four international UO students who had their visas revoked and then restored. 

The student was never arrested or convicted of any crimes, yet federal immigration officials still changed her status, preventing her from continuing her studies and working. 

In court papers, the student’s attorneys dispute the government’s claim that there’s no need for a preliminary injunction. They argue that the federal government’s new guidance is not sufficient and does not undo the damage that the student experienced when her visa was terminated. 

“The Defendants have not repudiated their illegal conduct which has irreparably disrupted Ms. Doe’s life,” they argued in court filings.

Those damages are both academic and economic, the student argued in court papers. She’s no longer on track to graduate in June and had to forgo an out-of-state April trip planned as part of her graduate thesis. She also lost about $2,000 in wages because she could not work as a teaching assistant and forfeited part of her tuition waiver, which amounted to more than $10,000, court papers say. 

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.