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Trump Administration Backs Down, Won't Implement ICE's Student Visa Directive
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jul 14, 2020
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Marcio Jose Bastos Silva / Shutterstock
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jul 14, 2020
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The federal government has abandoned a recently-announced Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy to deny student visas to international students attending American schools that planned to only offer remote learning this fall.
The decision comes Tuesday in response to a lawsuit filed last week by Harvard University and MIT in Boston against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Chad Wolf as the acting Secretary of DHS, and Matthew Albence as the Acting Director of ICE.
ICE announced the decision as a court hearing in the Harvard and MIT lawsuit was underway Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
Now, a policy implemented in March as COVID-19 began spreading will be re-instituted that allows "international students flexibility to take all their classes online and remain legally in the country with student visas,” according to the New York Times.
Harvard and MIT sought a temporary injunction from the ICE policy, claiming it is “arbitrary and capricious” and "devastating" for the country’s 1.08 million international students.
The policy “entirely fails to consider the significant effects that it will have on universities that have invested considerable time and effort in developing plans for the 2020-2021 academic year—plans that carefully balance the health and safety of faculty, students, and staff, with their core mission of educating students. The July 6 Directive likewise fails to consider the devastating effects that it will have on international students who will be forced to leave the United States or will be unable to enter to take classes, or those who will not be able to return to their home—or any—country,” the lawsuit argued.
Harvard had previously announced that its next school year would be entirely remote.
New York and 18 other states had sued the federal government over similar claims, as well as dozens of universities and localities filing amicus briefs in support of the Harvard and MIT lawsuit.
“Schools should never have to choose between enrolling international students & public health, period,” said New York attorney general Letitia James in a tweet. James had sued the Trump administration Monday over the ICE directive.
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Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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