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- Harvard and MIT filed the suit in a Massachusetts district court on Wednesday, just two days after the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) — under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — announced modifications in current temporary exceptions for nonimmigrant students taking online classes due to COVID-19.
- The new policy affects nonimmigrant F-1 students, who pursue academic coursework, and nonimmigrant M-1 students, who pursue vocational coursework.
- The suit seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent the government from enforcing the policy, which allegedly violates the Administrative Procedure Act — the law governing rulemaking by federal agencies.
- Harvard and MIT claim that the policy is “arbitrary” and “capricious” because it fails to consider, for one, the “devastating effects that it will have on international students who will be forced to leave the United States or will be unable to enter to take classes, or those who will not be able to return to their home — or any — country.”
- According to the suit, the policy also reflects “virtually no reasoned decision-making,” as it fails to justify why the ICE perceives a “need to resume the carefully balanced protections implemented by federal regulations.”
- Maura Healey, the Massachusetts attorney general, vowed to support the suit, slamming the policy as “cruel” and “illegal.”
- “Massachusetts is home to thousands of international students who should not fear deportation or be forced to put their health and safety at risk in order to advance their education,” Healey said in a statement. “This decision from ICE is cruel, it’s illegal, and we will sue to stop it.”
- Princeton University, Cornell University, and the University of Pennsylvania — among others — are all filing amicus briefs in support of the suit.
- The American Council on Education, a nonprofit coordinating the nation’s higher education institutions, also plans to file a brief in support of the suit.
- Some 25 higher education associations are expected to join the brief, including the American Association of Community Colleges, the Association of American Universities, and the Association of Land Grant Universities.