In surprise move, Trump administration reverses course on barring many foreign students

By Mica Rosenberg

 

FILE PHOTO: Students and pedestrians walk through the Yard at Harvard University, after the school asked its students not to return to campus after Spring Break and said it would move to virtual instruction for graduate and undergraduate classes, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., March 10, 2020. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a stunning reversal of policy, the Trump administration on Tuesday abandoned an attempt to force out tens of thousands of foreign students following widespread condemnation of the move and pressure from colleges and major businesses.

 

U.S. officials announced last week that international students at schools that had moved to online-only classes due to the coronavirus pandemic would have to leave the country if they were unable to transfer to a college with in-person instruction.

 

There are more than a million foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities, and many schools depend on revenue from foreign students, who often pay full tuition.

 

The announcement blindsided many universities and colleges that were still making plans for the fall semester, trying to balance concerns about rising cases of the novel coronavirus in many U.S. states and the desire to return to classes.

 

A flurry of lawsuits were filed challenging the rule including one brought by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and another by a coalition of state governments. Dozens of big companies and colleges and universities filed "friend-of-the-court" briefs opposing the rule.

 

The universities argued the measure was unlawful and would adversely affect their academic institutions.

 

In a highly anticipated court hearing on Tuesday in the case brought by Harvard, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Massachusetts said the U.S. government and the two elite universities that sued had come to a settlement that would roll back the new rules and restore the previous status quo.

The hearing lasted less than four minutes.

 

In March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) waived rules for international students on F-1 and M-1 visas that limit the number of online courses foreign students can take if they want to remain in the United States. The move came as schools shuttered campuses in response to the spreading coronavirus and public health lockdowns.

 

But on July 6, ICE abruptly reversed the policy without explanation.

 

The July 6 ICE guidance said foreign students could stay if their programs were in-person or offered a mix of online and on-campus instruction, but many universities had not yet settled on plans for the fall.

 

Harvard planned to hold all of its classes online for the upcoming academic year.

 

President Donald Trump, who is pushing schools across the country to reopen in the autumn, said he thought Harvard's plan not to hold in-person classes was ridiculous.

 

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York; Additional reporting by Mimi Dwyer in Los Angeles and Ted Hesson in Washington D.C.; Editing by Ross Colvin, Peter Cooney and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-15

 

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Good I think they are starting to realize they look like a bunch of feckless A H*&@# witch imo they are

At last Donald Trump learns something from the education system, don’t mess with people who are smarter than you.

 

All this winning, it’s getting to be too much.

Suspect ag barr informed the president that the doj doesn't have the stomach to defend yet another ill-conceived racist EO?

 

 

 

 

Edited July 14, 20205 yr by mtls2005

17 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

Suspect ag barr informed the president that the doj doesn't have the stomach to defend yet another ill-conceived racist EO?

 

 

 

 

In your rush to brand him a racist, are you sure there were no white foreign students involved?

3 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

are you sure there were no white foreign students involved?

 

Of course there were "white" foreign students impacted by this idiotic EO. That somehow makes it "less" racisit?

 

OK, if you say so.

 

 

1 minute ago, mtls2005 said:

 

Of course there were "white" foreign students impacted by this idiotic EO. That somehow makes it "less" racisit?

 

OK, if you say so.

 

 

Weird response. So he is racist against all races? OK whatever.

2 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

So he is racist against all races? OK whatever.

 

"WHOOSH"

 

The sound of reality rushing over your head.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a time when presidents thought before they published their thoughts. And there was a time when executive orders were not issued through Twitter. It seems that time was loooooong ago.

Imagine if Trump would be forced to think at least one minute about what he wants to tweet. That would bring already a big improvement.

4 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

So he is racist against all races?

Do you really need more evidence that he is a racist?

5 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

 

"WHOOSH"

 

The sound of reality rushing over your head.

 

 

 

 

 

Instead of a puerile response why don't you argue logically about your racist remark.  

Edited July 15, 20205 yr by DoctorG

3 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

There was a time when presidents thought before they published their thoughts. And there was a time when executive orders were not issued through Twitter. It seems that time was loooooong ago.

Imagine if Trump would be forced to think at least one minute about what he wants to tweet. That would bring already a big improvement.

You're expecting too much from someone with an attention span of a gnat. What I don't understand is how Trump can't relate to students not being in a classroom. Seems all his  exams were taken with him not in the classroom.  

14 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Imagine if Trump would be forced to think at least one minute

 

What's amazing here is that he admitted defeat (in court: Harvard/MIT vs. ICE) and was forced to rescind his silly "order"?

 

Not sure that's ever happened before?

 

tucker carlson would go nuts tonight, except he is "on vacation".

Edited July 15, 20205 yr by mtls2005

24 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

why don't you argue logically about your racist remark.

 

Feel free to "argue" how my remark was racist.

 

 

Because:

 

convincing someone that someone else is NOT a racist is impossible

 

no time to waste on you further

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 20205 yr by mtls2005

Wish they would reverse the 2016 election!

49 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

In your rush to brand him a racist, are you sure there were no white foreign students involved?

Did you even bother to look at the number of foreign students in the US by home country? 

24 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

 

Feel free to "argue" how my remark was racist.

 

 

Because:

 

convincing someone that someone else is NOT a racist is impossible

 

no time to waste on you further

 

 

 

I didn't say your remark was racist I asked you to support your assertion that Trump's EO was racist. You cannot support that so you are just trying to deflect.

4 minutes ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

Did you even bother to look at the number of foreign students in the US by home country? 

Why is that relevant? 

Excluding foreign students is not racist if it applies to all races. 

5 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

Why is that relevant? 

Excluding foreign students is not racist if it applies to all races. 

You are very naive. 

42 minutes ago, Somtamnication said:

Wish they would reverse the 2016 election!

Don't worry, there is still a chance at the DNC Convention for Hillary to get in the running again, so you can vote for her again. Oh wait, you appear to be British so I guess you cannot vote. Sorry about that.

1 hour ago, Somtamnication said:

Wish they would reverse the 2016 election!

But with Hillary in charge I wonder how many voters would think: Would things be better if we would have elected Donald?

 

It would be a great start if Americans would have choices of at least two decent candidates for president. Somehow that seems like an extraordinary idea... 

2 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Suspect ag barr informed the president that the doj doesn't have the stomach to defend yet another ill-conceived racist EO?

 

 

 

 

More likely Barr advised that such action was unconstitutional based on discrimination by nationality. Having lost many more cases than won in the Supreme Court during Trump's term, now in an election year may not be good timing to be in court again on constitutional issues for the alleged Law & Order president.

54 minutes ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

You are very naive. 

Selectively.

Forget racism, if there are so many students in the USA, can you imagine

how much money will leave with them if they all went home?  Maybe some

of Trumps people pointed out that small fact to the slow sloth, and it took

Donald until to today to realise the financial loss. Just a thought. After

all USA is a capitalist country, right?

Geezer

7 hours ago, DoctorG said:

In your rush to brand him a racist, are you sure there were no white foreign students involved?

Well he has said 'America first'.

BLM are the racists!

Certainly one of the dumbest and least visionary policies the feckless Trump administration planned. And only one of thousands. 

 

They were forced to abandon it as it would have caused untold damage. Dumb and dumber. Don and his crew. 

8 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

There was a time when presidents thought before they published their thoughts. And there was a time when executive orders were not issued through Twitter. It seems that time was loooooong ago.

Imagine if Trump would be forced to think at least one minute about what he wants to tweet. That would bring already a big improvement.

Seems like no one ever taught The Donald that old saying, “Make sure your brain is engaged before opening your mouth”.

"Since 1969 (the year the economics prize was added), a majority share of Nobel Prizes in the science categories have gone to U.S. institutions. But the scientists carrying out the cutting-edge research there have for a long time come from all over the world. Out of the 277 laureates that were exclusively affiliated with U.S. institutions, 87 had been born abroad, according to the Nobel Prize Foundation website."

https://www.statista.com/chart/19646/science-nobel-prizes-by-country-and-immigrant-share/

 

 

9 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Imagine if Trump would be forced to think at least one minute about what he wants to tweet. That would bring already a big improvement.

He doesn't have that long an attention span.