Due to the coronavirus pandemic, schools all over the country are being closed down. While this may not pose an enormous issue to elementary, middle, and high schoolers in summer break, it affects college students the most. Especially foreign college students. With the closage of most universities, a new US visa policy mandates that foreign students taking only online courses must transfer to a school giving in-person classes. The only other option to this regulation is to go back to their native country. Since the majority of colleges are giving online only courses because of COVID-19 outbreaks near them, this poses a serious question for international students who may be depending on a scholarship or funding to continue their research and education. Many of these students are simultaneously providing for families back home while completing their education abroad. With students who must stay in the country for their research, this new policy leaves them with very little room. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has proclaimed they will not accept certain visas for foreign students who are taking only online classes in the United States.
25-year old Bahamian student Olufemi Olurin had already planned to follow a healthcare path at Eastern Kentucky University. However, due to this new regulation, she may be forced to leave the country. According to a quote from CNBC, Olurin said “It’s kind of heartbreaking, I’ve been building my life here. As an immigrant, even if you are as law-abiding as it gets, you still are always waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under you.”
The response to this policy has been extremely negative from universities. In fact, Harvard University and MIT have filed a petition against ICE’s new statute. 180 universities have signed the petition thus far, several of them writing letters to ICE against their policy. Cornell, Vanderbilt, Princeton, and several big league colleges have taken part and signed the amicus. The Presidents’ Alliance, which is a community of American colleges and college leaders, are an organization set to inform the world of how immigration policies affect students. They were the main backing behind the petition to restrain the policy and a judge has given the ICE a deadline of July the 13th to act in response.
Students in the US possessing F-1 and M-1 visas are the ones who are at most risk by this policy. The F-1 visa is an academic course visa while the M-1 is non-academic and vocational. Either way, international students carry a hefty amount of tuition altogether and this affects colleges considerably. A great deal of funding for colleges come from international students who bring with them a large amount of money for their education and expenses. From Brookings statistics, the two states with the least amount of loss if international students are deported are Alaska and Wyoming. Even they, however, have just under $1 million in loss as a result. On the higher end of the scale, California and New York–with their own distinguished universities–would possibly lose $400 million and $300 million respectively. This is an enormous profit loss for universities especially when costs are already high for safety and health equipment.
To stop international students from needing to find another school or having to return to their native country, many colleges are striving to open blended courses: half online and half in-person. While this may seem like the perfect solution, international students have their own qualms. Brazilian student Henrique Carrusc fears for his and his peers’ safety. It should not be made for them to have to choose between two equally difficult options: their safety or their education. Carrusc has yet another reason for opposing this mandate. With huge surges in coronavirus cases in Brazil, the government has found it fit to close their borders to foreigners. By trying to control the deaths in their own country, the South American country has made it impossible for Brazilian students to return home, leaving people like Carrusc in an impossible ultimatum. Until the ICE and universities can agree upon a solution, international students are stuck in the middle with one foot in both worlds.
“Our international students now have many questions - about their visas, their health, their families and their ability to continue working toward an MIT degree. Unspoken, but unmistakable, is one more question: Am I welcome? At MIT, the answer, unequivocally, is yes.”
MIT President L. Rafael Reif
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