U.S President, Donald Trump has put aside a plan that was to order foreign students to leave the country. The Trump administration had attempted to order foreign students to depart the US to their own countries if their classes are to be taught online.
The announcement had triggered an outrage forcing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and a host of others to sue President Trump over the policy, arguing that “the measure was unlawful and would adversely affect their academic institutions.”
According to details of one of the suit, one aspect of the modified guidelines, which has thus far proven to be quite controversial, requires foreign students to remain in their home countries if their courses are going be taught online. Foreign students who are already in the US were also directed to leave the country if their courses are online-based.
In a twist of events, Allison Burroughs, U.S District Judge in Massachusetts who sat on the suit announced that the US government along with Harvard and MIT came to a settlement after the Ivy League Schools sued over the new policy for foreign students.
The suit alleges that the modifications made to the Students and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP) by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) came without warning.
It would be recalled that by March the US government waived the F-1 and M-1 Visas that had a limit on online classes foreign students can take. The policy was reversed on July 6 by President Trump, as it would have affected University preparations for the coming semester.
Harvard alone has about 5000 foreign students, including Nigerians, revising the US immigration guidelines on foreign students would cause disruptions in the coming autumn semester for foreign students.
Source: Nairametrics
