The Trump Administration Has Reversed Its Ban On Foreign Students Taking All Classes Online

The controversial policy had sent thousands of international students into a panic as they risked being deported in the fall.

Hamed Aleaziz BuzzFeed News Reporter
Last updated on July 14, 2020, 

Steven Senne / AP
A runner passes through an arch on the campus of Boston University on May 20.

The Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a controversial policy that would have revoked legal status for international students who planned to take classes entirely online in the fall as university campuses remain largely closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Details of the administration’s rollback came during a court hearing over a challenge brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in federal court on Tuesday. According to a court order, both sides had reached an agreement to rescind the policy, which was announced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week, sending thousands of students into a panic.

The Trump administration’s decision is a rare one. Government officials have repeatedly defended controversial immigration policies in court during the past three years, refusing to alter their decisions unless forced to. In this case, however, droves of major universities had lined up to challenge the policy in court. The Associated Press counted more than 200 universities that had agreed to support the Harvard challenge. International students in the US also spoke up on social media as politicians railed against its necessity.

International students reached by BuzzFeed News Tuesday said they were grateful for the decision.

“I'm extremely relieved on a personal note. I won't have to compromise my health or education,” said Siobhan, a 25-year old Irish college student in New York studying biochemistry. “But I think this very clearly shows that we can't take anything about our legal status for granted, and that we should be really vigilant about future attempts to do something like this.”

ICE had previously said students on F-1 and M-1 visas in the US could transfer to a school offering in-person classes to maintain their legal status. Otherwise, they risked being deported.

Under existing federal regulations, students on F-1 visas may take a maximum of one class or three credit hours online. Under the proposed policy some students taking a combination of online and in-person classes will be allowed to take more than the maximum currently allowed by federal regulation, as long as schools certify the program is not entirely online.

The Department of Homeland Security's Student and Exchange Visitor Program previously instituted a temporary exception for online classes in the spring and summer semesters in response to schools going online because of COVID-19.

Adolfo Flores contributed reporting.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.

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Hamed Aleaziz is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco.