U.S. bars new foreign enrollees if classes online

International students hoping to take college courses for the first time in the United States this fall semester will not be allowed to come to this country if all of their classes are online, federal officials said Friday.

Many education leaders have been at odds with the Trump administration in recent weeks over the government’s plans for international students for the upcoming semester. U.S. Homeland Security officials earlier this month announced they would ban all international students from studying in the U.S. if they took all of their courses online, prompting a lawsuit by Harvard University and MIT that was supported by Emory University, Georgia’s largest private university. Homeland Security rescinded the policy during a court hearing less than two weeks ago.

“In accordance with March 2020 guidance, nonimmigrant students in new or initial status after March 9 will not be able to enter the U.S. to enroll in a U.S. school as a nonimmigrant student for the fall term to pursue a full course of study that is 100 percent online,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials wrote Friday on the agency’s website.

“Nonimmigrant” is a reference to foreign nationals who seek to temporarily work and live in the United States.

Federal officials did not explain in the information posted online why the rules singled out new students.

Colleges ended in-person instruction in early March to prevent the spread of COVID19 on campuses. More than 23,000 international students took courses at various Georgia colleges and universities last school year, federal data shows.

Most colleges and universities planned to have students back on campus this fall, but several schools in recent days have said they will hold all courses online this fall, citing the rise in COVID19 cases across the country. In Georgia, the list of higher educational institutions planning to go all online this fall includes Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse and Spelman colleges.

AJC FILE Emory is among colleges and universities formally opposing federal plans to bar international students from U.S. study if they planned to take all their classes online.