U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that international students who enrolled after March 9 will still be unable to enter the U.S. if their courses are completely online.
The news release, issued on Friday, states that “nonimmigrant students in new or initial status after March 9 will not be able to enter the U.S. to enroll in a U.S. school as a nonimmigrant student for the fall term to pursue a full course of study that is 100 percent online.”
This announcement comes after ICE rescinded its initial guidelines barring all international students from entering or remaining in the U.S. if their universities switch to remote instruction, following a lawsuit filed against ICE by Harvard and MIT.
ICE has now clarified that its initial ruling still applies to newly-enrolled international students.
Manar Waheed, Senior Legislative and Advocacy Council at the ACLU, said to Insider that ICE’s announcement is “another way for the administration to target students in particular and [prevent] people from coming to the U.S.”
Education groups are now urging ICE to allow all international students to enter the U.S., according to WTTW.
Brad Farnsworth, vice president of the American Council on Education, expressed the organization’s disappointment following the announcement, stating, “We have been fearing this and preparing for this. We’re still disappointed.”
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