Judge blocks Trump from deporting 5 Missouri college students

Jonathan Shorman, The Kansas City Star on Apr 24, 2025

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A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from deporting five Missouri college students.

The Department of Homeland Security recently revoked the student visas of the five individuals, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Bough wrote in a six-page decision granting a temporary restraining order that halts the revocations and prevents the federal government from detaining or deporting the individuals.

The order comes as the Trump administration has moved to cancel visas for hundreds of students at colleges and universities across the country. The student visa revocations are part of a broader crackdown on immigration, with the federal government seeking to dramatically ramp up deportations.

The five Missouri students aren’t publicly named in the lawsuit, but their backgrounds are summarized. Among them is an individual from Bangladesh who previously attended Virginia Tech University and is currently employed in Kansas City as part of his education. The employer isn’t identified.

The other individuals include a Nigerian student at Truman State University, a Spanish student at Northwest Missouri State University, a Nepalese student at Southeast Missouri State University and a Nigerian student at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Bough, who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2014, wrote that the “only apparent basis” for their visa cancellations is that each student has had some legal infractions “of varying degree, consequence, and outcome.”

The students’ presence in the United States with uncertain legal status, Bough wrote, “threatens imminent harm in at least two ways. First, it may subject them to immediate detention and removal. Second, it makes their presence in the United States unlawful, which is likely to impede or prevent them from becoming a permanent resident in the future.”

The visa cancellations represent only the latest immigration action by the Trump administration to jolt the Kansas City region.

The administration previously canceled February flights that would have brought more than 100 refugees to Kansas City. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, also raided a Mexican restaurant in Liberty in February, resulting in at least one deportation.

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