Earlier this week, The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released new guidelines that effectively force international students out of the country should their school go entirely online for the coming year. The policy exempts students who are taking a combination of online and in-person courses.
While previous regulations limited online instruction for foreign students, due to public health lockdowns, ICE implemented a policy this March that allowed schools to launch fully online programs without jeopardizing students’ visa status. However, under last week’s new guidelines, students are now potentially facing deportation. ICE has yet to release an official reason for the policy change.
Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, justified the new policy by stating that “there isn’t a reason for a person holding a student visa to be present in the country if campuses do not hold in-person classes.”
This new policy has created “enormous confusion and uncertainty” among international students, according to a spokesperson from The American Council of Education. Foreign students have scrambled to enroll in at least one in-person class, even those not related to their major, in a desperate attempt to meet ICE’s guidelines. Students at various universities have created spreadsheets to connect international students with their American peers so that they can swap classes.
Many speculate that this new policy is a move on the Trump administration’s part to push public schools to reopen in the fall, despite Covid-19 cases still surging. Shortly after the policy was released, Trump tweeted his support, saying that Democrats are resistant to re-opening schools “for political reasons, not for health reasons.”
Others have called out the rules for not giving schools the authority to make decisions regarding the well-being of their students. NAFSA, an international education group, said the policy is “harmful to international students and puts their health and well-being and that of the entire higher education community at risk.” Lawrence S. Bacow, the president of Harvard University, denounced the guidelines as having no “regard to concerns for the health and safety of students, instructors, and others.”
The regulation follows a series of actions from the Trump administration to restrict immigration during the COVID-19 pandemic. In June, the administration suspended green cards and work visas for various non-immigrant categories until the end of the year. Also, asylum seekers from the Mexican border, for the first time in history, are now effectively banned from the United States.
These new guidelines appeal to those that favor limiting legal immigration. Advocates for tighter regulation on international students are concerned that these students will stay in the U.S. after graduation and compete for American jobs.
