On Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it would require all international students on F-1 student visas to leave the United States if they took online-only courses in the Fall. With the still-growing cases of Covid-19 in the U.S., the announcement left international students with two options: either cut their studies short and leave the country, or risk their lives going to class.
In response, some students sought to create one credit classes while others had to consider transferring to other colleges that offered in-person courses. On Wednesday morning, Harvard and MIT teamed up to sue the Trump administration to block the directive from ICE, calling it ‘reckless’ and ‘dangerous.’
An hour ago @Harvard and @MIT filed a federal lawsuit here in Boston to stop ICE from stripping international students’ visas when schools go online to protect our community’s health and safety. “We will not stand by to see our international students’ dreams extinguished.” pic.twitter.com/pONUOCIYOw
— Andrew Crespo (@AndrewMCrespo) July 8, 2020
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in the US Court for the District of Massachusetts, the directive goes against the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). Among other things, the APA regulates how rule-making and ensures that one government agency- in this instance, ICE- does not abuse their power.
There are currently more than 1 million international students in the United States. Shortly before ICE announced its directive, Harvard had told its students that all classes would remain online through the Fall semester in response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In many states, including California, Florida, and Texas, Covid-19 cases are continuing to rise and more than 133,000 people have died since March.
