U.S. universities win key battle for foreign students
In a welcome move, the Trump administration has withdrawn its edict to evict foreign students from the US unless they are enrolled in courses that are conducted in person.
The widely criticised move on July 6 by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) required that students on F-1 and M-1 visas whose education had moved entirely to online coaching for the fall semester go back to their countries.
The ICE notification followed several universities including Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers and others announcing mostly online courses fearing the continuing spread of Covid-19.
American universities host nearly a million foreign students, with Indian-origin students making up at least one-fifth of the enrolments. It’s the legal intervention of the universities that has forced the Trump administration to withdraw its mischievous ‘guidance’.
They must be commended for their bold move to protect the careers of thousands of international students who faced mid-term deportation.
One university head rightly described the new ICE rule as “weakening American higher education—one of our nation’s signature strengths”.
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), later joined by others, sued the US government over the rule. Soon after the cases were filed last week, a Boston federal court disclosed to the litigants on Tuesday that the Trump administration had dropped the controversial rule.
Trump’s diktat is part of the ill-conceived policy of forcing open US cities and communities too early, too fast. It has triggered a second wave of coronavirus as people let down their guard.
By moving against international students, a soft target, Trump’s game was to indirectly push universities to open face-to-face classes.
At a broader level, the measure was aimed at buttressing the administration’s avowed anti-immigration policy.
American education has attracted millions of students for its liberal ideology and the rigorous regime it offers.
On the flip side, the flow of talent into the US has benefited the local economy. Indian émigré students must be indeed overjoyed that their studies will be uninterrupted, at least for now.