More than one million foreign students are in fear of deportation by ICE if their universities decide to go all-in on online learning. Hybrid learning will also be targeted in cases where the foreign students take few in-person classes.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announcement that foreign students taking only online classes will be deported has left many students uneasy about their stay in the US. The directive was announced abruptly and both students and universities were caught unaware of what was happening behind the scenes.
ICE targeting foreign students
The push by Trump Administration to reopen schools fully, without relying on online classes is believed to have motivated ICE to implement the policy that will see the more than one million foreign students across the US affected.
In two decades, the number of foreign students has more than doubled, with the US becoming a global attraction for students looking for quality higher educaiton.
However, one million foreign students are now looking at possible deportation for those universities that will not have face to face classes. Students have started expressing their fears, with the uncertainty surrounding them amidst coronavirus.
Students express fear
A Pakistani student, Taimoor Ahmed, who studies information technology at Cal State University in Los Angeles, is among the hundreds of thousands who are now worried about possible deportation. The 25-year-old, in an interview with AFP, said that he feared that if his university does not offer in-person classes, he was more likely to be deported by ICE, as the new laws come into effect.
Ahmed’s fear is a microcosm of what many foreign students are feeling right now amidst coronavirus in the country. With the US recording more than 3 million cases, it has become very difficult for universities to promise that they will reopen their schools fully and accommodate in-person classes.
Havard and MIT lawsuit
Fearing the consequences of what is ahead, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) filed a lawsuit on Wednesday asking the courts to suspend the ICE directive allowing them to deport foreign students. The asked the courts to first suspend the directive temporary as they figure out a way forward.
Chronicle of Higher Education website data shows that 84 percent of universities in the US are planning to implement a hybrid system with both in-person and online learning classes. ICE has also vowed to deport those students in hybrid systems who will be taking fewer in-person classes.
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