Japanese national Suguru Onda is around a year away from completing his doctoral degree at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah. His graduation is now in doubt, though, as he was recently informed that his Form I-20 — a certificate of eligibility for F visa status – was being revoked without notice. He’s subsequently been ordered to leave the States before the end of April.
Visa Revoked Without Human Review
The reason for the revocation being served: Onda has been identified in a criminal records check. Yet, according to his attorney, Adam Crayk, the Japanese man only has two speeding tickets on his record, in addition to a catch and release violation from a fishing trip six years ago, which was eventually dismissed. So how did we reach this point?
Speaking to KSL NewsRadio, Crayk said it was an automatic revocation issued by a computer. “It’s turned out that the Department of Homeland Security has used a tech bot to simply go out and search,” he said. “And anything that comes back with any type of criminally related conduct… it issued a revocation. It was never subject to human review or human eyes.”
A Helpless Situation
As the action is so arbitrary and capricious, Crayk revealed that he is filing a temporary restraining order (TRO) in court to challenge the validity of the revocation. For Onda, though, it remains a very worrying situation. “I feel helpless,” he told KSL NewsRadio’s Adam Small. “Like nobody knows (the) answer, nobody knows what to do, what’s going to happen.”
Onda added that BYU has been very supportive, but he is preparing for the worst. The situation is also proving very stressful for his family. He is married with five children, two of whom were born in the States. They now don’t know whether they’ll be able to finish the school year over there.
At Least 800 Visas Revoked Nationwide
Onda is one of many international students to have had their visas revoked without notice in recent weeks. “Right now, there are reports of at least 800 visas being revoked or students’ records being terminated,” Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance, told United Press International (UPI). She added that it’s “because of retroactive sweeping of all kinds of criminal databases that the government has access to.”
