SALT LAKE CITY — Suguru Onda, a Ph.D. student at Brigham Young University who was threatened with deportation, has had his student visa reinstated.
Over the weekend, Adam Crayk, Onda’s lawyer, told the local ABC affiliate that a lawsuit filed by Onda and several others was apparently successful.
“Look, I would love to say the reason was the lawsuit,” Crayk told ABC4.com. “Do I have that 100%? No. But I also know there were so many people that showed so much interest in this case … It just had lots of movement, and it was the right course of action.”
Onda, who is married with five children, expressed excitement as well as gratitude for the support he and his family have received.
“A lot of families have reached out to me and brought us food and tried to offer help,” he said. “We couldn’t do this without their help — so I really appreciate all of the community, and especially for the church.”
According to Onda’s Linked In profile, he has over 10 years of research work experience in computer vision, machine learning and material engineering.
Last week, Onda, who is a year away from earning his doctorate in computer science at BYU in Provo, Utah, was informed that his international student visa was being revoked. He was among at least two dozen international students in Utah who were directed to leave the country immediately.
Onda was told that he could continue his studies remotely.
Under the Trump Administration, action has been taken not only against undocumented immigrants but also against immigrants who are in the U.S. legally. In some students’ cases, they had expressed political opinions that the administration doesn’t agree with. Onda has no history of political activism.
“I was surprised,” Onda told The Deseret News,“but at the same time, I’m seeing so much news about (student visa revocations), but I didn’t expect it to happen to me.”
According to Crayk, the reason given was: “Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their visa revoked, service record has been terminated.”
However, in Onda’s six years of study in the U.S., his only offenses were a couple of speeding tickets and a citation for harvesting more fish than his fishing license allowed during a 2019 trip with his Latter-day Saints church group — a charge that was later dismissed.
Onda didn’t catch any fish but was the organizer of the group, according to Crayk, who noted that most cases of international students having their visas revoked involve felonies.
Crayk suggested that AI software may have mistakenly terminated the visa. He also said there was no communication with immigration officials prior to the reinstatement.
The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security had no immediate comment.
Onda and other students whose statuses were terminated argued in their lawsuit against DHS that their due process and other Fifth Amendment rights were violated.
“I want to thank so many of you who reached out on his behalf,” Crayk said in a Facebook post. “Today (April 18) he was interviewed and he expressed gratitude to everyone who supported him. He thanked the government for looking at his case again. There was no bitterness, just gratitude. I may have been secretly wanting some more righteous indignation from him, but I just was amazed at his response and attitude.”
According to The Deseret News,Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said that his office has reached out to the Trump Administration regarding the students who have had their visas revoked.
“We’ve asked them to give us a little bit of a heads-up when these things are happening. We’d like to understand better what the criteria are for those changes,” Cox said, noting that many of the affected students had no criminal records.
Cox said that in the past Trump has talked about the importance of attracting “the most talented and brightest” from other countries. “We know how important those visas are and how important immigrants are to building our economy.”