ICE rescinds rule that would send international students home for online classes

Amid mounting lawsuits from universities and colleges in California and beyond, the Trump Administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would force international students to return to their country if they could not attend school in-person in the fall or risk deportation, the Associated Press reported.

The announcement was made at a federal lawsuit hearing against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security brought on by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A lawyer representing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said officials would pull the rule, which was announced July 6, and “return to the status quo,” the AP reported.

“The Trump Administration appears to have seen the harm of its July 6 directive, but it shouldn’t take lawsuits and widespread outcry for them to do their job,” said California Attorney General Becerra, who was among those who filed a lawsuit. “In the midst of an economic and public health crisis, we don’t need the federal government alarming Americans or wasting everyone’s time and resources with dangerous policy decisions.”

Fresno State student relieved at reversal

In Fresno, Tanmay Parkar, who is from India, was relieved to hear the news.

Parkar graduated in May from Fresno State with a degree in industrial technology, and had planned to start on his master’s degree right after. But when ICE announced the temporary final rule, he decided to take some time off and look for a job instead, prepared to delay his education by at least a year.

“Everything was at stake,” he said. “No one wants to be back home and study online. Classes would be held at American times and students would be awake at 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. studying calculus and stuff.”

He said a lot of students also have set up a life in the U.S. that would be difficult to just leave behind. Some families have sacrificed financially to get their children into college, he added.

“I feel sad and I feel worried for my classmates or friends from different countries,” he said. “Who (was) going to give them money to travel back home?”

During the spring and summer, the Student and Exchange Visitor program exempted international students from rules requiring enrollment in in-person classes to remain in the country, but ICE officials said in early July, ”as many institutions across the country reopen, there is a concordant need to resume the carefully balanced protections implemented by federal regulations.”

F1 visa requirement

According to the would-be rule, students with an F1 visa would have had to take an in-person course to remain in the country, or transfer to a school that offered the course.

Since colleges in the Fresno area are planning for a hybrid semester, international students would have had to try and enroll into the small amount of courses offered in-person. Other universities, such as Harvard, announced an all-online fall.

Becerra, along with the California State University and California Community College systems were the latest to sue the Trump Administration for the rule, alleging that it was a public health issue.

The rule would have affected 21,000 international students attending a California Community College, and the 10,300 attending a CSU, according to the lawsuit.

The University of California was also prepared to file a lawsuit on behalf of its 27,205 international undergraduate students and almost 14,000 graduate students.

Because international students pay inflated tuition to attend U.S. schools, the move would have hurt institutions financially, Becerra said.

“It will also likely further burden educational institutions at a time when the state faces significant budget shortfalls and schools are already struggling to confront the economic and public health impacts of COVID-19.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 2:11 PM.