Colleges and universities won a major victory yesterday following the government’s agreement to halt its plan to deport international college students who were only enrolled in online courses this fall. U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs announced the reversal during a teleconferenced hearing.
Boston College had joined more than 200 schools in support of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s suit against the Trump administration’s new restrictions on international students that, if enforced, would have barred students from entering, or required them to leave the U.S.
The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration filed an amicus brief in support of the two universities’ lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in federal court in Boston. The coalition of American college and university leaders argued that the policy jeopardized foreign students’ health and safety, and would have forced schools to reconsider extensive fall academic plans after investing substantial resources in developing their 2020 operations.
The alliance had sought an injunction against new directives from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that effectively would have implemented a ban on international students taking online-only courses, a measure that many universities undertook based on DHS rules issued in March that indicated such academic flexibility would continue for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency.
The state of Massachusetts also filed a federal suit on July 13 that was joined by Democratic attorneys general in 16 other states and the District of Columbia opposing the government’s restrictions. Other suits were filed by Johns Hopkins University and the state of California, and many politicians, labor unions, tech sector companies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce condemned the policy.
Yesterday’s ruling signifies that ICE’s previous decision allowing international students to continue their studies remotely due to the coronavirus with no impact on their visa status remains intact. The bearing on students with expiring visas and on new students applying for visas whose classes may be entirely online, however, is unclear.
According to the Boston Globe’s reporting, the universities’ filing stated that implementing the rules would “diminish the incomparable contributions made by international students to American social sector organizations, businesses, and the economy. The directive also poses a threat to public health: By operation and design, it aims to force universities to reopen before they have determined it is safe to do so, imperiling not only their students, faculty, and staff but also their surrounding communities.”
University Communications | July 2020