Update: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Tuesday announced July 14 that it has withdrawn the new visa guidelines. The announcement came during a federal court hearing in a lawsuit filed by Harvard University and MIT seeking a temporary injunction of the guidelines.
Vermont is joining a lawsuit filed by a coalition of states attempting to block a new Trump administration rule revoking the visas of foreign students who take classes completely online this fall.
“If this rule is allowed to go into effect it will be a huge loss to Vermont and Vermont students,” Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan said in a statement Monday. “It’s a plain violation of law and we will not stand for it.”
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, challenges a directive, put out by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement last Monday, that would require students on F1 and M1 visas to take at least part of their course load in person if they want to stay in the country.
The new ICE directive reversed guidance, released in mid-March, that allowed international students attending U.S. colleges and universities on such visas to take all-online classes “for the duration of the emergency.”
The lawsuit alleges that the federal government violated the Administrative Procedure Act in abruptly putting out the new rule without explanation or input, and failed to consider the public health implications. It also came after many schools – including in Vermont – had already made and announced their plans for the fall.
“It is the essence of arbitrary and capricious to withdraw, without explanation, a commonsense measure to manage the pandemic currently engulfing our country,” the complaint states.
The ICE guidance likely impacts hundreds – if not thousands – of students studying in Vermont. The University of Vermont alone had 566 active F1 students, hailing from 67 countries, according to filings submitted with the lawsuit.
The attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wisconsin have all joined the lawsuit.
Kim Howard, the director of UVM’s Office of International Education, said in an interview last week that the school, which announced it would offer both in-person and online programming this fall, is now trying to work with every student to make sure they can find a course that will allow them to stay put and fulfill their degree requirements.
But she noted that ICE’s latest directive isn’t the only bureaucratic obstacle foreign students face. Many must also contend with travel restrictions that could make getting back to the U.S. difficult, even if they keep their visas.
That’s left international students reeling, she said, and confused and overwhelmed by the ever-shifting landscape.
“You’re already having to comply with a bunch of rules, because you’re not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. But then the rules keep changing. And you’re not sure when they’re going to change, and how they’re going to change, and how that might impact your ability to complete your degree,” Howard said.
Erin Jacobsen, a professor at Vermont Law School who specializes in immigration, agreed that the impact of the new ICE guidance should be understood in the wider context of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric. The pandemic, too, complicates matters – with 1,100 Vermonters employed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services furloughed, Jacobsen worries paperwork that urgently needs processing likely won’t be.
“All these obstacles – it really is adding up to basically just like, close our doors to immigrants. It’s awful. It’s just a disaster,” she said.
The multi-state lawsuit is the latest legal challenge contesting the Trump administration’s rule. California went to court over the guidance last week, after Harvard and MIT jointly announced their own lawsuit, which was also filed in the U.S. District Court in Boston.
Officials with Middlebury and Dartmouth, meanwhile, said last week the colleges would be filing friend of the court briefs in the Harvard and MIT lawsuit.
Dartmouth announced late last month that nearly all of its undergraduate programming this fall would be delivered online, although a portion of the school’s student body is being allowed back on campus.
“Any action inhibiting the free exchange of talent and ideas limits our ability to advance Dartmouth’s core academic mission,” Dartmouth officials said in a statement released last week. “By restricting international students’ participation in any online courses our faculty choose to offer to protect the health and safety of our community members in the face of the continuing pandemic, the (Student and Exchange Visitor Program) guidance strikes at the heart of that mission.”
There are 1,046 international students – undergraduate and graduate – enrolled at Dartmouth, a spokesperson said.
At Middlebury, provost Jeff Cason said the school expects about 275 international undergraduates to enroll in the fall term. About 75 to 100 international students might select to participate in courses remotely from outside the U.S, he added, and ICE has said that students who take a full-time course load online while outside the U.S. will be able to maintain their F-1 visa status.
Middlebury announced in late June that while undergraduates would be allowed back on campus, it would give its professors the option to choose whether to teach in-person or online.
Staff at the college are “working with a highly dynamic situation, and cannot necessarily give definitive answers to every question, in part because final regulations have not been issued,” Cason said.
But he added that “many faculty have let us know that they would be willing to teach additional courses and do whatever it takes to make sure our international students can stay enrolled at Middlebury.”
Some Middlebury professors have even taken to Twitter with that pledge.
“I will do an in-person, face-to-face independent study with any @Middlebury student that faces removal from the US because of this policy,” Middlebury political science professor Sarah Stroup posted to the social site last week.