The Trump administration has rescinded a controversial policy that could have forced the deportation of foreign students who attend colleges that aren’t offering in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic.

As we reported last week, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the Trump administration to block the policy issued by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under the policy change announced July 6, foreign students with nonimmigrant (F-1 and M-1) visas would have had to leave the United States or transfer to different schools that offer in-person classes.

But US officials agreed to rescind the new policy in a settlement with Harvard and MIT, as revealed today at a hearing on the case at US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. “At a short hearing Tuesday afternoon, US District Judge Allison Burroughs confirmed that a settlement had been reached,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “She said the government would rescind the policy, withdraw an FAQ detailing the rule and return to the status quo of guidance issued in the spring.”

Under a policy issued on March 13, which is back in effect because of the settlement, ICE provided an exemption to the rule that F-1 students must attend classes in person. The Harvard/MIT lawsuit pointed out that, when ICE issued this exemption, “the government made clear that this arrangement was ‘in effect for the duration of the emergency.'” But the Trump administration’s July 6 order reversed that policy despite the pandemic raging on and the fact that President Trump had not rescinded his national emergency declaration.

Harvard and MIT argued in their lawsuit that the Trump administration’s July 6 policy change “is arbitrary and capricious because it fails to consider important aspects of the problem before the agency… fails to offer any reasoned basis that could justify the policy.” The lawsuit also argues that the change violates a requirement to provide public notice and take comments.

Thousands

Harvard has nearly 5,000 students who study in the United States on F-1 visas, and MIT has nearly 4,000 such students. The schools, which are planning online-only instruction this fall, said that the now-rescinded ICE policy would have been problematic for students from countries such as “Syria, where civil war and an ongoing humanitarian crisis make Internet access and study all but impossible.” Such students also would have had to “abandon housing arrangements they have made, breach leases, pay exorbitant air fares, and risk COVID-19 infection on transoceanic flights” or “risk detention by immigration authorities and formal removal from the country” if they did not leave the US promptly, the lawsuit said.

But barring further changes, today’s settlement means those students will be able to remain in the US and take online-only classes this fall. The Trump administration’s backpedal seemed to come as a surprise—the schools submitted a court filing earlier today asking for a preliminary injunction “because Harvard and MIT are likely to succeed on the merits” and because the policy was already causing harm. “The government is enforcing the Directive at airports and consulates across the world, turning students away because they attend universities that have made the considered decision to offer instruction online this fall,” Harvard and MIT said in their filing submitted shortly before the settlement was announced.

While the July 6 policy would have prevented foreign students from taking fully online course loads in the US, the now-rescinded policy said that nonimmigrant students could avoid deportation proceedings by attending schools that use a “hybrid model” of online and in-person classes.

Trump plan “threatened public health and safety”

The Harvard/MIT lawsuit had support via amicus briefs from cities and towns and hundreds of other colleges. The Trump administration’s move to deport students faced other challenges in one lawsuit filed by 17 states and the District of Columbia as well as in another lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

James issued a statement calling today’s settlement “welcome news for more than 100,000 international students in New York, more than one million students across the country, and millions of additional families across the world.”

“President Trump and his team threatened the public health and safety of all students, all faculty, and hundreds of millions of residents across New York and the rest of the nation because of his rush to reopen schools, his anti-immigrant motives, and his sagging poll numbers,” James said. “Enough is enough. It’s time for the president to stop treating immigrants like nothing more than scapegoats and for him to start leading our nation through this national pandemic.”

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1691705