The order was aimed at expelling foreign students from courses that will be posted online due to COVID (representational)
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have sued the Trump administration for its order to withdraw international students from their US visas and deport them if their courses are completely online because of the coronavirus.
The universities, in a lawsuit launched Wednesday in the American district court of Boston, asked for a temporary prohibition order to suspend the order of the government of July 6. The order was “illegal,” the universities said, asking the court to prevent the US Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs from enforcing federal directives that will force international students to leave America. .
A temporary restraining order will put immigration and customs enforcement policy on hold for 14 days. In court documents, the universities said they were building on the Department of Homeland Security’s March policy that allowed foreign students in the United States to stay and allow new students to arrive this fall.
The controversial order said that foreign students studying in America would have to leave the country or risk being expelled if their universities switched to online courses only in the fall semester.
The U.S. Department of State would not issue students visas to schools or fully online programs for the fall semester, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection would not allow students to enter the U.S. , said a press release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (LA GLACE). The agency suggested that students consider other measures such as transfer to schools with face-to-face instruction.
According to a report in The Harvard Crimson, the president of Harvard University, Lawrence Bacow, said in an email that the order had been issued without notice, his cruelty having exceeded only his recklessness. “We think the ICE order is bad public policy, and we think it is illegal … We will pursue this matter vigorously so that our international students – and international students at institutions across the country – can prosecute their studies without the threat of “eviction,” said Bacow, the report said.
The order potentially affects thousands of Indian students.
India sent the largest number of students (251,290) to the United States after China (478,732) in 2017 and 2018, according to a report.
Students enrolled in American universities receive F-1 visas. The order means that those who take courses that travel online will no longer receive F-1 visas and will not be able to enter the United States on F-1 visas.
President Donald Trump’s move is seen as an attempt to pressure universities to reopen and lift the restrictions many have announced to fight Covid-19.
Trump had attacked Harvard University’s decision to move all of its courses online, calling it “ridiculous.”
“I think it is ridiculous. I think it is an easy way out. And I think they should be ashamed of themselves,” said the American president at a White House roundtable. during which he called for the reopening of schools and universities for the next semester. .
MIT said that many graduate students and research staff will be allowed on campus, but to ensure remoteness, most administrative staff who could work remotely would continue to do so.
The universities petition said: “It appears that the ICE decision reflects an effort by the federal government to force universities to reopen courses in person, which would require students to be accommodated in densely populated residential rooms, despite the universities’ judgment that it is neither safe nor pedagogically advisable to do so, and to force such reopening when neither students nor universities have enough time to react or cope with additional health and safety risks of their communities. The effect – and maybe even the goal – is to create as much chaos as possible for universities and international students. “
