Under mounting lawsuits and immense public condemnation, the Trump administration on Tuesday said it would rescind the dangerous and cruel Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy forcing international students to either attend in-person classes amid the novel coronavirus pandemic or leave the U.S.
“The hearing was over before it began, essentially,” tweeted American Immigration Council policy counsel Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “After NINE lawsuits filed, DHS backs down completely and revokes the guidance before it's bound by a court.”
More than 200 universities had signed onto a lawsuit launched by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology against the Trump administration, which had its hearing in court on Tuesday. “If the judge does not suspend the rule, colleges across the U.S. will have until Wednesday to notify ICE if they plan to be fully online this fall,” The Associated Press said on Monday.
It won’t have to get to that, at least for now. “It’s a major win [for] colleges and universities, some of which depend heavily on international students and the top dollars to pay to attend school in the US,” Telemundo’s María Peña tweeted. “The announcement was made during a hearing for a preliminary injunction that was slated for 90 mins but lasted under 2.”
Experts did note a possibility of the administration possibly coming back to try a variation of the restriction, but explained a “very important caveat”:
Or maybe the Trump administration could just let students, whether international or from right here in the U.S., safely pursue their studies without interference. I mean, how many lives did ICE torment with a dangerous and cruel policy that it just then rescinded under pressure a little more than week later?