ICE directive for foreign students worries local colleges
EVERETT — Local colleges are closely monitoring legal challenges to new federal rules requiring international students attend classes on campus despite a pandemic or lose their visa status.
The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools that are fully online for the fall semester and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement won’t allow such students into the country.
Those already in the U.S. and enrolled in colleges that have gone online for fall quarter “must depart the country or take other measures,” such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction, or face “immigration consequences,” according to the new rules.
Because of the COVID-19 spread, the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program instituted in March a temporary exemption allowing foreign students to take more online courses for the spring and summer semesters than normally permitted by federal regulation.
Harvard and MIT have sued to try to overturn the new rules. So have 17 states, including Washington where Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the Trump Administration’s proposed visa rule for international students. Approximately 27,000 international students attend higher education institutions in Washington state. Roughly 1,000 attend college in Snohomish County.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/ice-directive-for-foreign-students-worries-local-colleges/
