Trump walks back plan to deport foreign students taking online classes
US President Donald Trump's administration has rescinded its previous plan to deport the international students if their university courses go online this fall, following a legal challenge from top universities.
The decision was announced by US District Judge Allison D. Burroughs during a hearing on Tuesday after Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won a legal battle over the issue.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement would revert to its earlier guidance and allow overseas students to remain in the US even if their courses were wholly virtual, the judge noted.
The move to restrict the F-1 visas attracted widespread criticism from colleges and universities across the US, which are already grappling with how to safely return students to campus during the covid-19 pandemic.
"The order [by Trump] came down without notice — it's cruelty surpassed only by its recklessness. It appears that it was designed purposefully to place pressure on colleges and universities to open their on-campus classrooms for in-person instruction this fall, without regard to concerns for the health and safety of students, instructors, and others,” according to Harvard University President Larry Bacow.
In the past weeks, Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut off funding to schools that do not open in the fall and criticized a federal health agency’s guidelines for reopening schools as “very tough & expensive.”
The Republican president, who is seeking re-election in November, also have accused the Democrats of wanting to keep schools shut for political reasons, despite a surge in coronavirus cases across the country.
Trump's campaign views reopening of classrooms and enabling parents to get back to work as a key to economic recovery and a boost to his re-election chances in the upcoming 2020 presidential vote.
Majority of US college students support pro-Palestine campus protests: Poll
US police tear-gas students, arrest dozens as Gaza war protests spread
US campus protests: Columbia affiliate college fully divests from Israel
Israel removal from our land inevitable: Haniyeh on Nakba anniv.
VIDEO | Gazans search rubble for survivors after Israeli strikes on Jabalia
VIDEO | Nakba Day anniversary
VIDEO | Interview with Sandrew Hira
Hezbollah retaliates heavily against Israel after cmdr. assassination
VIDEO | Victims of 2017 Zahedan terrorist attack say US sponsors terrorism in region
VIDEO | Palestinians mark anniversary of Nakba in shadow of Gaza war
Hamas marks Nakba Day, says Israel failed to achieve goals in Gaza
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
