BOSTON and DENVER — The Colorado Attorney General’s Office has joined a 17-state lawsuit filed against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stop a rule that would revoke foreign student visas in the event of university classes being held online this fall.
Under ICE’s proposed rule submitted earlier this month, students with temporary study visas would have to return to their home countries if their schools go fully online this coming semester, and visas will not be issued to incoming students. Colleges and universities are required to certify by Aug. 4 that every enrolled international student will have either full or partial in-person classes to prevent them from losing visas.
The agency says the restrictions are in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but lacked further specific reasoning.
In filings in the U.S. District Court in Boston, the states led by Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey argue that most schools have already begun planning class schedules based off ICE’s March 13 guidance allowing students to keep their visas if they take their required classes online throughout the pandemic’s length.
The suit describes the rule as a “cruel, abrupt, and unlawful action” that forces universities to redraw class plans with little advance time and with potential adverse health impacts, or drop thousands of international students from their rolls, a move that could also seriously impact revenue from tuition and college-town economies.
“Now, with insufficient notice, zero explanation, and severely depleted resources, colleges and universities are forced to readjust all of those plans to account for whether every single international student, in every single program, will have sufficient in person learning opportunities to maintain their visa status in the United States — a determination they must make before many students have registered for a single class, while many faculty and staff are absent from campus due to the pandemic or on leave for the summer, and while the pandemic’s course this summer and autumn remains worrisome and unclear,” it reads.
The region’s three major universities have previously derided ICE’s move in statements.
Colorado State University president Joyce McConnell said her administration believes the order is meant to pressure educational institutions to open fully on-campus in line with the wishes of President Donald Trump and called it “the latest and perhaps cruelest attack on the educational opportunities of our international students.”
In a weekly video address, University of Northern Colorado president Andy Feinstein said the school is reaching out to the state’s Congressional delegation to pressure the agency into reversing course.
In a statement to BizWest, University of Colorado System spokesman Ken McConnellogue said the four-campus group supports the lawsuit and is a signatory to a letter by the American Council of Education asking ICE to withdraw the rule.
According to institutional data, CSU, CU Boulder and UNC had 1,862, 2,923 and 207 international students, respectively.
In separate lawsuits, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the state of California have already filed their own lawsuits to stop the rule from taking immediate effect.
The suit requests an injunction to halt the rule from taking effect pending judicial review.
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