Trump administration revokes order banning visas for students enrolled in online classes. The United States government, on Tuesday, revokes Trump Administration. And its much criticized directive which asked international students to leave the United States if they are enrolled in an online study program. Donald Trump’s government rescinded the order after facing extensive opposition from educational institutions, tech companies, senators etc.
The announcement was made by the US district judge Allison Burroughs at an online hearing on Tuesday.
On July 8, the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement released a statement, laying out new rules for student immigration in the country. According to the order, visas will not be issued to the students who are enrolling in a fully online program beginning later this year. It also mentioned that the students who are already staying in the United States but are enrolled in a program which is going to be conducted online, these students would have to leave the country.
This move was much criticized by various stakeholders in education around the world. It also urged the prestigious Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to file a lawsuit to block this order. Harvard had already announced a shift to online classes for all its programs for the academic year 2020-21.
The pressure on the federal government increased after companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft started backing the lawsuit filed by the Universities, reports Scroll.in. On Monday, about 17 US states and the District of Columbia filled a lawsuit against the Trump government. “A cruel, abrupt and unlawful action to expel international students amidst the pandemic”, they stated referring to the change in Immigration rules.
On Tuesday Judge Burroughs announced that the government has agreed to rescind the order and has made a settlement with the Universities. The situation now goes back to “status quo”.
Universities in the United States are a major hub for international students and the major reason to migrate to the country. For Universities, a major chunk of income comes from international students as they pay the full amount of tuition fee.
