State to sue ICE over international student policy for online classes

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced Monday that Connecticut will join other states in suing the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over a policy targeting international college students choosing to stay in the U.S. to take online classes.

Connecticut joined a coalition of 17 other states that will sue the Trump administration in federal court in Massachusetts. Connecticut’s lawsuit advocates on behalf of the state colleges and universities.

“It is nothing less than an attack on Connecticut and our institutions of higher education and on students, teachers and staff and administrators,” Tong said. “We are talking about thousands of students across Connecticut.”

This lawsuit will run parallel to the lawsuit filed by Harvard and MIT last week that represents private universities.

The Trump administration announced on July 6 that international students “may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States.” As of 2019, 14,832 international students lived in Connecticut, over 4,000 of which attend UConn.

Gov. Ned Lamont, who spoke at a news conference Monday with Tong, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and international students from Connecticut universities, called the policy “insane.”

“As a governor and a former business guy, it is just insane what we are doing right now,” Lamont said. “In the middle of this COVID crisis, I see the nurses, I see the doctors, I see the scientists — I see the role immigrants have played in pushing back on COVID.”

Lamont said that forcing international students to leave the state isn’t smart business. He said the state should be considering ways to incentivize them to stay.