Harvard and MIT file suit to protect international students from deportation
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have filed a lawsuit seeking to halt a new federal immigration directive that threatens the deportation of international college students who take all of their classes online this fall.
The directive issued Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says all students with F-1 or M-1 student visas in the U.S. must go back to their home countries if their courses are entirely online in the fall, a measure many colleges and universities are adopting due to the spread of the coronavirus.
“As a university with a profound commitment to residential education, we hope and intend to resume full in-person instruction as soon as it is safe and responsible to do so. But, until that time comes, we will not stand by to see our international students’ dreams extinguished by a deeply misguided order. We owe it to them to stand up and to fight — and we will,” Harvard President Larry Bacow said in a Twitter post Wednesday.
On Monday, ICE announced that international students will not be allowed to stay in the country if they attend institutions, like Harvard, that are holding courses online this fall. (1/6)
— Harvard University (@Harvard) July 8, 2020
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Boston seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting enforcement of the government directive.
In the 24-page filing, both universities argue that ICE “proceeded without any indication of having considered the health of students, faculty, university staff, or communities.” The lawsuit adds that this decision leaves hundreds of thousands of international students without any other options within the United States.
Both Harvard and MIT say that this “reflects an effort by the federal government to force universities to reopen in-person classes” and consequently to reopen residential halls which are usually at capacity, putting thousands of students in danger of contracting COVID-19.”
An ICE spokesperson told the Miami Herald that the agency could not comment on the matter because of the pending litigation.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, international students contributed more than $41 billion to the country’s economy in 2018 and represent 5.5 percent of the total student body in the institutions. Foreign students also contributed $1.6 billion to Florida’s economy in 2018 and supported some 16,500 jobs, data show.
The Acting Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli, told CNN that the government provided “massive flexibility” in past months for their laws on student visas, and added that the Trump administration is not forcing universities to reopen.
“However, if a university doesn’t reopen this semester, there isn’t a reason for a person holding a student visa to be present in the country,” Cuccinelli said. “They should go home and return when the school opens.”
