The United States government has withdrawn its controversial order that asked foreign students to leave the US if their courses had moved completely online due to COVID-19, a federal judge said on Tuesday, 14 July, news agency AFP reported.
The move comes after the universities like Harvard and MIT – along with a number of other institutions, teachers' unions and at least 18 US states – initiated legal action against the move of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The universities, in their lawsuit, had said the order would harm students “immensely,” both personally and financially.
The US said it would not allow foreign students to remain in the country if all of their classes moved online in the fall semester.
They have to take hybrid classes – a combination of in-person and online modules – to continue to stay in the country, the order had said, adding that the failure to follow the new norms would mean deportation or even a ban from entering into the US.
When the case was filed, Harvard President Larry Summers had said, "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 the International Institute of Education, there are over one million foreign students in the US, and of them about 2,00,00 are from India.
(With inputs from AFP, IANS)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)