California sues Trump administration for telling foreign students: risk your health by attending classes or face deportation

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

International students at UC Davis are reassured: 'You belong here."

California is the first state to sue the Trump administration latest attempt to limit entry of immigrants and visitors from other countries.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, and California State University Chancellor Timothy White Thursday (July 9)  announced the State of California is filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful policy that threatens to exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 and exile hundreds of thousands of college students studying in the United States through the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP).

“With this lawsuit, California is standing up for the 21,000 international students who attend our community colleges and standing up for our right to continue teaching and learning in a safe and responsible way during the pandemic,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley.

The lawsuit by the Attorney General comes after the University of California announced its lawsuit against the federal agencies, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

California's suit is also separate from the lawsuit filed Harvard, MIT and Northeastern University on Wednesday.

“To UC’s international students, I say: ‘We support you and regret the additional chaos ICE’s action has caused,’ ” said UC Board of Regents Chair John A. Pérez.

More than 160,000 international students attend California colleges and universities, according to NAFSA, an association of international educators — including about 40,000 at UC. China and India are far and away the top two home countries of international students.

UC Davis senior Kymberley Chu, who is Malaysian and studying international relations and anthropology, called forcing students to attend in-person classes or face deportation  malicious and inhumane. “It’s just saying, ‘I’m gonna kick out all these foreigners, despite the fact that they have ties and relationships, people, places and the things we’re doing,’” Chu said. “We already have lives here.”

The decision to strictly enforced the rule amidst a pandemic would affect students on F-1 academic visas and M-1 vocational education visas.

At a time when COVID-19 cases are surging across the state, immigration policy requires international students to take classes in person — putting themselves, teachers, other students, and the community at large at risk of getting and spreading the coronavirus — or be subject to deportation.

Beyond the myriad significant direct harms to individual students, the mission of California’s higher education institutions would suffer if international students are forced to disenroll because of the Trump Administration’s arbitrary actions. It will also likely further burden educational institutions at a time when the state faces significant budget shortfalls and schools are already struggling to confront the economic and public health impacts of COVID-19.

"Shame on the Trump Administration for risking not only the education opportunities for students who earned the chance to go to college, but now their health and well-being as well,” said Becerra. “President Trump appears set to do just that — amidst a global pandemic of historic proportions. Not on our watch. No one graduates more students from college or assembles a more talented and diverse group of future leaders than California. ... We'll see the Trump Administration in court."

As the state with the largest university systems in the nation, California is committed to doing everything it can to protect hardworking people who have earned the right to study and contribute to our communities.

The Trump Administration’s shift in policy on SEVP flies directly in the face of guidance it previously issued and advertised as being in place for the duration of the pandemic emergency, which universities and students across the country relied upon to make plans for the upcoming school year and protect the safety and well-being of their students. 

Moreover, with new COVID-19 cases averaging more than 7,500 a day in California over the last week, the Trump Administration policy threatens to also turn California’s colleges and universities into “super-spreaders” of the disease.

"Students are experiencing extreme changes and obstacles in their education as a result of the pandemic, but now ICE is treating international students like political pawns and dictating educational choices and leveraging immigration status as a weapon," said a statement from Asian Americans Advancing Justice. "This new move is another notch of cruelty in a long list of white supremacist policies targeting the immigrant community."

ICE: Foreign students taking online classes face deportations

What a difference a year makes. Chinese students who can afford it seek a US education.

UPDATED: 11 p.m., July 7

Thousands of international students who are attending US schools will have to leave the country or risk deportation if their universities switch to online-only courses, according to a press release from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status,” ICE’s release said. “If not, they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.”

The rule applies to holders of F-1 and M-1 nonimmigrant visas, which allow nonimmigrant students to pursue academic and vocational coursework, respectively.

More than 1 million of the country's higher education students come from overseas, according to the nonprofit Institute of International Education.

The top 10 sending places of origin and percentage of total foreign student enrollment are: China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Brazil, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, and Mexico. China alone has about 370,000 students studying in the US.

Many universities are considering a move to online courses as a strategy to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. 

"We think this is going to create more confusion and more uncertainty," said Brad Farnsworth, vice president of the American Council on Education, which represents about 1,800 colleges and universities. "What we were hoping to see was more appreciation for all the different possible nuances that campuses will be exploring."

Nine percent of colleges are planning for a fully online fall semester, 24 percent are proposing a hybrid model, and 60 percent are planning for an in-person fall semester, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

The same day ICE issued its announcement, Harvard University announced that all its classes will be online this coming semester.

ICE's announcement shifts away from the exceptions put in place during the spring and summer terms, which allowed international students residing in the U.S. to take a fully online course load as colleges transitioned to online instruction in response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

More than 90 percent of international students chose to remain stateside in the spring, according to a survey by the Institute for International Education. Should the pandemic worsen, as Trump's own health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has suggested, the new rule would not allow such flexibility for those students.

Most schools were caught by surprise by the ICE announcement and are still trying to how to respond or adjust to the directive.

“ICE’s announcement is perplexing, given that some degree of remote instruction is necessary for colleges and universities to protect the safety and well-being of their communities and the public at large, while still allowing students to continue their studies," said University of California President Janet Napolitano. "Challenges and uncertainty related to COVID-19 are already weighing heavily on students; now is the worst time to burden them further with anxiety.

“UC will assess fully how these changes will affect our campuses and our international students. However, this much is abundantly clear: The Trump administration’s latest actions impacting international students."
California State UniversityChancellor Timothy White announced in May that the university's classes would remain primarily online during the fall term due to the pandemic. However, he said limited exceptions would be made for "in-person activities that cannot be delivered virtually, are indispensable to the university's core mission and can be conducted within the rigorous standards of safety and welfare."

"We are currently reviewing the new guidance to determine how to reduce impacts to students and will provide information to campuses and students in the near future. The Chancellor's Office is currently working with individual campuses to re-review online and in-person offerings to determine if they meet the new ICE directives," CSU said in a statement.

The American Council on Education, a higher education lobbying group, also condemned the rule change in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

"At a time when institutions are doing everything they can to help reopen our country, we need flexibility, not a big step in the wrong direction," wrote ACE President Ted Mitchell. "ICE should allow any international student with a valid visa to continue their education regardless of whether a student is receiving his or her education online, in person, or through a combination of both, whether in the United States or in their home country, during this unprecedented global health crisis."

Following is the press release ICE released Monday:

WASHINGTON – The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) announced modifications Monday to temporary exemptions for nonimmigrant students taking online classes due to the pandemic for the fall 2020 semester. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security plans to publish the procedures and responsibilities in the Federal Register as a Temporary Final Rule.

Temporary exemptions for the fall 2020 semester include:

1. Nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States. The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States. Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status. If not, they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.
2. Nonimmigrant F-1 students attending schools operating under normal in-person classes are bound by existing federal regulations. Eligible F students may take a maximum of one class or three credit hours online.
3. Nonimmigrant F-1 students attending schools adopting a hybrid model—that is, a mixture of online and in person classes—will be allowed to take more than one class or three credit hours online. These schools must certify to SEVP, through the Form I-20, “Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status,” certifying that the program is not entirely online, that the student is not taking an entirely online course load this semester, and that the student is taking the minimum number of online classes required to make normal progress in their degree program. The above exemptions do not apply to F-1 students in English language training programs or M-1 students pursing vocational degrees, who are not permitted to enroll in any online courses.

Schools should update their information in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) within 10 days of the change if they begin the fall semester with in-person classes but are later required to switch to only online classes, or a nonimmigrant student changes their course selections, and as a result, ends up taking an entirely online course load. Nonimmigrant students within the United States are not permitted to take a full course of study through online classes. If students find themselves in this situation, they must leave the country or take alternative steps to maintain their nonimmigrant status such as a reduced course load or appropriate medical leave.

Due to COVID-19, SEVP instituted a temporary exemption regarding online courses for the spring and summer semesters. This policy permitted nonimmigrant students to take more online courses than normally permitted by federal regulation to maintain their nonimmigrant status during the COVID-19 emergency.

F-1 nonimmigrant students pursue academic coursework and M-1 nonimmigrant students pursue vocational coursework while studying in the United States.

Modern day sweat shops prey on aspiring tech workers from India

By Louis Chan
ASAM NEWS

WHEN YOU HEAR the words body shop, you likely think of workers in overalls restoring your car to its original physical condition.

For thousands of mostly Indian workers, body shops may be the equivalent of the modern day sweatshop. They are employers who may be taking advantage of desperate immigrants looking for a way to stay in the United States.

An article by Nikhil Swaminathan in Mother Jones details how many body shops exploit these workers and how a little known federal program may be the enabler, along with universities raking in big bucks by attracting foreign students on the hope the program can lead to a job in the United States.

A federal guest worker program called OPT or Optional Practical Training is attracting literally tens of thousands of Indian students to the United States. At the University of Central Missouri, the Indian international student population exploded from 152 in 2012 to 2500 in 2015. That’s 17 percent of the school’s student body.

According to Mother Jone’s, OPT allows foreign students who earn degrees to work in their field for a year after graduation. You can stay up to three years if you majored in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. That’s as long as the much harder to get H1B visa. There are now 300,000 OPTs in the US.

“One student I spoke to, who appears in my Mother Jones piece, said that people back in India think of someone who lives in America as “a god,” said reporter Swaminathan to AsAmNews. “Also, for some Indian parents, I think there’s a sense that sending their kids to the U.S. is a sort of retirement plan for them. If the kids come here and earn in dollars, they can send enough money home for the parents to live comfortably into old age. Or they can even send for them to come live in the States with them once they’re set up. I also heard that men who work in the U.S. get higher dowries when they look to marry.”

The OPT program may be working for students who go to better known schools with good reputations, but those at lesser known schools often find themselves struggling with little prospect of getting jobs at top tech firms such as Google, Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Amazon. Once shut out of that job market, these students find themselves targets of body shops.

One student talked about his experience on You Tube.

Body shops can pay $50,000, slightly higher than an internship at a top tech firm, according to Swaminathan.

“As I detail in the story, going the body-shop route often means lying on your resume, having other people take technical interviews for you, signing restrictive employment contracts, and basically involving yourself in a host of unethical practices,” said Swaminathan. “It’s a real-life catch-22 for prospective immigrants desperate to stay in America.”

Several body shops have been coached to lie to the government about their work to obtain H1B visas. Some companies have also been accused of failing to pay their workers. There are no regulations that require universities to vet the employers they allow to recruit on their campuses.

“These institutions that are just spewing out these degrees aren’t making any attempt to give them a career path,” said Prathiba Kalyan, a recruiter who spoke to Mother Jones.

Students for the most part are left feeling vulnerable and to fend for themselves.

“Students who get involved with body shops are scared — both because they think they have to do whatever their employer says to keep their immigration status (not to mention make money) and because, for those who join body shops, they eventually figure out they’re complicit in a sketchy situation,” said Swaminathan.

“Until the government can figure out how to incentivize these kids to come forward — and that might mean offering amnesty to OPT students who have participated in unethical behavior — this problem could conceivably continue.”

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