A new federal lawsuit against the Trump administration offers a glimpse into the reasons why international students in the United States believe they have had their visas revoked.

The lawsuit, filed at the US District Court of Northern Georgia in Atlanta, seeks to stop the revocation of visas to international students and to reinstate those that have already been revoked.

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More than 500 international students, faculty and researchers around the country have had their visas revoked with little or no explanation in recent weeks as the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown.

The lawsuit, which currently includes the cases of 133 foreign students, was filed by Kuck Baxter, an Atlanta-based legal firm, focusing on immigration. CNN has obtained copies of both the complaint and the adjoining motion for a temporary restraining order filed at the same federal court on Friday. A modified complaint to add more students was filed at the same court late Tuesday night. The original complaint included the cases of 17 international students.

Nine of the original 17 students in the lawsuit are citizens of India and five are from China. The other three come from Colombia, Mexico, and Japan, according to the complaint and Dustin Baxter, one of the filing attorneys.

In the complaint, the students are not identified by name, but a “pseudonym due to fear of retaliation by Defendants.” The lawsuit names three Trump administration officials as defendants: US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons.

The White House and DHS have not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

The complaint alleges that ICE has abruptly and unlawfully terminated the students’ legal status in the United States “(…) stripping them of their ability to pursue their studies and maintain employment in the United States and risking their arrest, detention, and deportation.”

The administration, the suit says, has terminated their status by removing the students from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) used by the Department of Homeland Security to maintain information mainly regarding international students and their status in the country.

The complaint offers a synopsis of each of the original 17 cases, listing the college each student is attending, the county where they live, and the reason they believe they’re being targeted.

For example, Jane Doe 1, an international student from Colombia enrolled at Kennesaw State University and a resident of Fulton County, Georgia, believes she’s being targeted for a domestic violence case that was dismissed in February “because there was no underlying proof of any crime,” according to the complaint.

John Doe 2, an international student from China enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, believes he’s being targeted for traffic citations, including driving with an expired license plate while his driver’s license was withdrawn. “The case was closed and he had no other arrest history,” according to the complaint.

A doctoral student from China enrolled at the University of Georgia in Athens faced the most serious charge of any of the 17 students. Jane Doe 5 was arrested in November and charged with DUI, which was later reduced to reckless driving in March, according to the complaint. It also states that she “pled guilty and was sentenced to 12 months’ probation and paid all associated fines.”

Federal officials have not specified the reasons why these students’ visas have been revoked, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said that some behavior, including participating in protests, will not be tolerated.

“They’re here to go to class. They’re not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine our universities. I think it’s lunacy to continue to allow that,” Rubio said.

This perspective also has fueled perhaps the most high-profile deportation case of foreign nationals accused of supporting terrorist organizations — Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate who is a legal permanent US resident through a green card.

In late March, Rubio said that more than 300 visas, “primarily student visas, some visitor visas,” had been revoked.

US Representative Robert García, a California Democrat, told CNN Sunday 800 students “that we know of from across the country” have been affected.

CNN has reviewed court filings, attorney statements and announcements from more than 80 universities and colleges, and confirmed that more than 525 people have had their visas revoked this year.

“We also know that they’re targeting students for free speech. So, it’s not just a traffic violation or it’s not just claiming that they’ve done something, and giving them no due process to defend themselves, but also (targeting) other students for free speech so we all should be incredibly concerned and we’re demanding answers from Homeland Security,” García said.

But Baxter, one of the filing attorneys in the Atlanta lawsuit, said the Trump administration is going well beyond targeting only activists. Anywhere officials saw a student encounter with a police officer, they would revoke the student visa, he said.

“So not only would they revoke the person’s student visa, even if there was no conviction, if there was just an arrest, and sometimes there wasn’t even an arrest, there was just an encounter and maybe a ticket, they would revoke the student visa,” he said.

With the temporary restraining order, Baxter said, they’re seeking that visas that have already been revoked be reinstated so that affected students can remain registered for classes at the colleges and universities they’re attending.

“We’re dealing with a lot of people who are finishing up their education, so we have people who are getting ready to defend their doctoral thesis, and all of a sudden, they were just told via email and by the school that they’re no longer registered in SEVIS, their registration has been terminated and they’re no longer students of the university. So, these people are in difficult situations,” Baxter said.

CNN’s Maxime Tamsett contributed to this report.

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