Trump rescinds rule
Plan to require those on F-1 visas to take in-person classes met many legal challenges
White House walks back on a plan that would have forced international students to take in-person classes or risk deportation.
Following mounting criticism and legal challenges, President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday walked back on a plan that would have forced international students to take in-person classes or risk deportation.
The move to rescind the policy came out of an agreement made between the government and Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both of those schools had filed a lawsuit following the Trump administration’s July 6 announcement of the planned practice, according to the New York Times.
Earlier Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James held a phone conference discussing a separate lawsuit she had filed calling for the directive from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be set aside. She was joined by several leaders in higher education denouncing the policy and outlining the negative impact it would have on communities across New York.
“International students should never be used as political fodder to force colleges to reopen their doors, but the president’s inability to remove politics from public health decisions endangers us all,” James said in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “The diversity of our colleges and universities is what makes New York schools among the world’s most competitive and most sought after, but President
Trump’s reversal in policy not only threatens these innocent students’ educational paths, but our state’s hard-hit economy and the public health of millions of New Yorkers.”
New York joined more than a dozen other states as well as other educational institutions that filed similar lawsuits.
The directive would have required international students to maintain at least one in-person class in order to keep their F-1 visas that allow them to study in the United States. The instruction came at a time when public and private colleges and universities have developed extensive plans for the fall semester, many of them opting to provide all classes online, to protect staff and students from contracting the coronavirus.
Critics of the ICE directive called it politically motivated and part of an effort by Trump to force colleges to hold in-person classes, as the president has urged schools and colleges to open their doors for the fall semester.
CUNY,
SUNY and labor unions representing college staff blasted the directive and pointed to the many ways international students contribution to the economy.
James said New York ranks second in the nation for the number of international students it attracts to public and private universities, with New York City having the most international students in the United States at more than 100,000. There is another 42,820 international students throughout the rest of New York, including more than 5,000 international students enrolled in colleges in the Capital Region.
International students often pay the full price of tuition, provide valuable research work and teach classes, higher education leaders said.
They also have made New York communities their homes, developing careers and buying homes in the area, said Mary Beth Labate, president of the Commission of Independent Colleges & Universities, which represents more than 100 private and nonprofit colleges in New York.
“To frame just how important this issue is to the higher education ecosystem in New York, out of 1.2 million degree seeking college students about 10 percent are international students,” she said. “They contribute $5.3 billion to the economy each year and support nearly 60,000 jobs. They are an integral part of the rich fabric of higher education in New York state.”