US: Scholars criticise Donald Trump's student immigrant policy

Name: US: Scholars criticise Donald Trump's student immigrant policy
Uploaded: 08 Jul 2020, 11:31:05 PM
Duration: 02:08
Channel: TIMESOFINDIA.COM

1882 views | Jul 08, 2020, 11:31:05 PM | AP

American and foreign students are blasting new federal guidelines say international students will be forced to leave the U.S. or transfer to another college if their schools offer classes entirely online this fall. The guidelines provide additional pressure for campuses to reopen even amid growing concerns about the recent spread of COVID-19 among young adults. "I guess when I first saw that, it kind of just felt like another tick on them trying to be divisive in this time and kind of blame other people other than the administration on the current crisis," said MIT biological engineering graduate student Grant Knappe. President Donald Trump has insisted that schools and universities return to in-person instruction as soon as possible. "I think it kind of feeds into kind of their idea about just trying to push schools open without really coming up with a good plan and they're trying to force the hands of people into, you know, opening up fully without really seeing if it's good for the public health in general," Knappe said. He said he was not surprised by Trump's latest attack on immigrants. "I think it fits along the narrative of xenophobic kind of restrictionism that he's kind of been pushing since, you know, before he was elected," Knappe said. Dozens of colleges have said they plan to offer at least some classes in person this fall, but some say it's too risky. The University of Southern California last week reversed course on a plan to bring students to campus, saying classes will be hosted primarily or exclusively online. Harvard on Monday said it will invite first-year students to live on campus, but classes will stay online. The rules say international students must take at least some of their classes in person. New visas will not be issued to students at schools or programs that are entirely online. And even at colleges offering a mix of in-person and online courses this fall, international students will be barred from taking all their classes online. Elizabeth Garcia is a graduate student studying modern culture and media at Brown University Graduate. "Students have to make a choice between their health or leaving the country is ridiculous. And I know that they've made exceptions in the past, so they need to make a change soon so students don't have to miss out on school," she said during a visit at Harvard University. Garcia said Trump is pushing to create a false narrative that the coronavirus pandemic is under control and that students are attending classes in person ahead of elections scheduled for November. "Things are obviously not safe for people to go back to work or to go back to school, and they should be supported until things are safe," Garcia said during her visit from her home in the Rhode Island capital of Providence. Colleges across the U.S. were already expecting sharp decreases in international enrollment this fall, but losing all international students could be disastrous for some. Many depend on tuition revenue from international students, who typically pay higher tuition rates. Last year, universities in the U.S. attracted nearly 1.1 million students from abroad. "It's worth noting how much international graduate students contribute to American universities and American knowledge and research. And how much money they bring here, too. We really couldn't exist without them," Garcia said. Of particular concern is a stipulation saying students won't be exempt from the rules even if an outbreak forces their schools online during the fall term. It's unclear what would happen if a student ended up in that scenario but faced travel restrictions from their home country. Tianzhu Xiong is a graduate student at Harvard University's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. A native of southern China, Tianzhu described the new federal rules as unfair to international students who contribute tremendously to the knowledge pool in the United States. "I was thinking about my friends, sometimes they are in their final year of master's program and now they're very nervous of what to do. Also, I have friends that's not in the U.S., did not go... So they have difficulty coming back already because of the immigration or the visa issues. And this is going to add another layer of pressure," he said. Immigration authorities suspended certain requirements for international students early in the pandemic, but colleges were awaiting guidance on what would happen this fall. ICE notified schools of the changes Monday and said a formal rule would be forthcoming. The announcement was the Trump administration's latest pandemic-related strike against legal immigration. Last month, authorities extended a ban on new green cards to many people outside the United States and expanded the freeze to include many on temporary work permits, including at high-tech companies, multinational corporations and seasonal employers. The administration has long sought deep cuts to legal immigration, but the goal was elusive before the coronavirus.