The policy change was announced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Representation)
Washington:
The United States announced Friday that it will not accept any new international students seeking to study only online, after it quashed a hotly contested order to expel those already here and prepare for it due to the pandemic.
The policy change was announced in a statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
President Donald Trump has made a hard line on immigration the cornerstone of his message and suspended several types of visas for foreigners during the coronavirus crisis.
The initial policy change to revoke visas for international students whose classes will transfer online in the fall has been taken to court by top universities including Harvard and MIT, teacher unions and at least 18 states .
And on July 14, the administration reversed course and overturned the decision.
The move was seen as a Trump move to pressure educational institutions that are taking a cautious approach to reopen amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump is eager for schools at all levels to reopen with in-person classes as a sign of a return to normalcy as he fights an uphill battle for re-election in November.
He is pushing for it even though the virus is out of control in some states, with death figures in the United States reaching a global high of over 144,000.
His administration largely leaves it to the states themselves to determine how to open schools safely.
There were more than one million international students in the United States for the 2018-19 academic year, according to the Institute of International Education.
Many schools depend heavily on the tuition fees paid by these students.
Most US colleges and universities have yet to announce their plans for the fall semester, but Harvard has said all of its classes for the 2020-21 academic year will be conducted online, “with rare exceptions.” .
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
