Hundreds of local students impacted by immigration policy over online classes
A new federal immigration policy could impact more than 700 international students working towards a degree at Oakland University. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday that international students would not be allowed to stay in the country should they take only online classes, or, if their school closes for inperson instruction. The new ruling from the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program affects M-1 and F-1 international student visas.
Last fall Oakland University had approximately 911 international students enrolled. Roughly 700 of them are on F-1 visas and a vast majority of those students are from either the European Union or China, both countries which have travel restrictions for entering the U.S. currently.
“We have some knowns and some unknowns right now,” Rosemary Max, executive director of global engagement for Oakland University’s International Education, said. “Our only clarification is that they can’t be 100% online if they’re to stay in the U.S. So we will need to find some in-person component for these students.”
That could mean a hybridclass schedule of online and in-person or perhaps even dissertation meetings with professors for graduate students. Traditionally international students are required to take a majority of their classes in-person. Those rules were relaxed in March as schools, colleges and universities closed down across the country due to the coronavirus. Max said the new rule came as a surprise and that administrators are awaiting more follow-up information from immigration authorities.
On Tuesday, a U.S. State Department press release said that the temporary rule “provides greater flexibility for non-immigrant students to continue their education in the United States, while also allowing for proper social distancing on open and operating campuses.”
Ora Pescovitz, president of Oakland University, called the new rule “cruel” in a campus-wide email this week.
“This cruel policy is designed to harm Oakland University’s nearly 1,000 international students, and more than 1 million of the country’s higher education students who travel from abroad to the U.S.,” she said. “This provision from ICE’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program undermines the purpose and mission of cultivating a vibrant, diverse and inclusive learning community, which is open to students of all races, ethnicities and nations.”
Both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to block the new policy. California also became the first state to seek an injunction against enforcement of the rule, according to the Associated Press.
There’s also concern about the long-lasting effects the policy could have on the local economy. Many Oakland University international students stay and work in Michigan directly following graduation for practical training, something that can only be approved if the student has two consecutive semesters of time accumulated on their F-1 visa status.
“There’s a real, practical issue of students having to leave going home. If they end up having leave,” Max said. “I don’t even know how many planes are running these days … We have so many students from the EU and from China, and a few students from Iran. The burden is so heavy for them. These students may not be able to get back.”