A US federal judge announced yesterday that the Trump administration has revoked its policy that would prevent international students from taking online-only courses in educational institutions to stay in the United States. The move is a rare backflip for the administration which has built a reputation for draconian immigration policies.
The decision comes a week after the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced that students that had F-1 or M-1 visas and enrolled in schools providing online-only instruction for the Fall 2020 semester would have to leave the country, or transfer to another university that was offering in-person or hybrid (mix of online and in-person) instruction. The announcement threw many international students and their academic plans into a quandary, as they contemplated deferring their studies. Many also feared being forcibly deported from the US, due to the lack of international flights preventing them from leaving voluntarily. It also prompted a wave of lawsuits against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from the country’s leading universities and a coalition of 17 states. Universities like Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where international students make up more than 20% of the student body, were the first to file such lawsuits.
According to a CNN source, the White House caved in to the strong opposition to this proposal outside the administration, and the man staff within the West Wing believed the policy to be poorly devised and implemented. The policy did not include instructions for international students if they wished to transfer to schools with in-person or hybrid instruction. China Daily reported on Harvard and MIT’s joint lawsuit, which argued that ICE and the DHS did not take into account the “reality” of the pandemic continuing. By enforcing this policy, the agencies would be putting the health and safety of students, faculty, and staff members across the country at risk.
According to the very same CNN article, the White House is now focused on having the new rule apply only to new and incoming international students, rather than those already based in the US. On this matter and any other ongoing international students’ visa policy decisions, the White House declined to comment. For now, however, the move to rescind the proposal will bring a sigh of relief to the more than 1 million international students based in the US. They will now not be forced to return to their home countries or transfer to another school, college, or university. The administration will now return to the policy that was in effect from March, which gave more flexibility by allowing international students to take online-only courses and simultaneously remain in the US.
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Images: Yushang Xu (via Unsplash)
