TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Saying Florida is trying to protect against “nefarious foreign-government influence,” higher-education leaders this week asked a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling that blocked part of a 2023 law restricting ties between state universities and colleges and China.
Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office filed a 60-page brief at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that a federal district judge improperly issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by two Florida International University doctoral students and a University of Florida professor.
The March 28 injunction ruling focused on the students, who are from China and say the law has prevented them from working as graduate teaching assistants, positions that carry stipends and other benefits. The students, Zhipeng Yin and Zhen Guo, received what are known as F-1 visas from the federal government to study in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez approved recommendations from U.S. Magistrate Judge Eduardo Sanchez, who said federal law governs such immigration and national-security issues.
But the brief field Monday disputed that the state law (SB 846) was “preempted” by federal laws. Uthmeier’s office is representing the defendants, members of the state university system’s Board of Governors, system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr.
“In essence, the (district) court held that a state university must hire an alien student, no matter the security risks, because years earlier the federal government gave that student an F-1 visa and ran a cursory background check,” the brief said.
Also, the state’s lawyers contended that “Congress simply intended to provide a floor with its security review, not a ceiling” as part of the F-1 visa process.
“Nothing in the F-1 visa statutes or regulations indicate that Congress saw State Department desk agents as the first, last, and only line of defense against threats to the nation or to informational security,” the state’s lawyers wrote.
But in his recommendations, Sanchez, the magistrate judge, wrote that the state law “requires the Board of Governors to make a national security determination about foreign students seeking employment at state colleges and universities, just as the federal government does when determining eligibility for and issuing visas to those students.”
”For example, although a student visa holder will have been found by the federal government to meet all of the eligibility requirements for the issued student visa, including satisfaction of national security concerns, SB 846 requires the state of Florida to conduct an independent assessment of national security concerns that may result in a conflicting national security determination,” Sanchez wrote. “Indeed, SB 846’s application to students who have been granted student visas serves no purpose other than to revisit, question and potentially seek to override the federal immigration determination that the pertinent student does not pose a national security concern.”
The state law was part of a package of changes that the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved largely targeting China. Along with China, it sought to prevent involvement in the higher-education system by Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria.
The law prevents universities and colleges from employing people who are “domiciled” in China and the other countries, unless the people go through a process to get approval from the Board of Governors or the State Board of Education, which oversees colleges.
The magistrate’s recommendations, filed Feb. 10, said Yin is pursuing doctoral studies in computer and information sciences, while Guo is studying materials engineering. In 2023, they were initially offered graduate teaching positions, which included annual stipends of $27,510 and tuition waivers, but were later told that the teaching positions were deferred because of the state law.
They remained students at FIU but had to pay full tuition, Sanchez wrote.
The state quickly appealed the injunction ruling and raised a series of issues in Monday’s brief. For example, the brief disputed that the students had legal standing to sue the Board of Governors because FIU — not the statewide board — denied their employment.
More broadly, the brief said the state “enacted SB 846 to protect its citizens from nefarious foreign-government influence by barring hostile foreign governments and their potential agents from stealing sensitive information at Florida’s public universities.”
The state also has asked the Atlanta-based appeals court for a stay of the injunction while the underlying appeal plays out. The court had not ruled on that request as of Wednesday morning.
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