By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A controversial ICE policy that would have stripped international students of their visas if their college exclusively offered online classes amid the coronavirus pandemic has been rescinded.
The reversal was announced Tuesday by a U.S. District judge who was hearing a lawsuit filed by Harvard and MIT, The Boston Herald reports.
“I have been informed by the parties that they have come to a resolution,” U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said during a Tuesday hearing.
“The government has agreed to rescind the July 6, 2020 policy directive,” she said.
The means international students may stay in the U.S. to take classes online.
On Monday, 18 states filed suit against the Trump administration in an attempt to rescind the new policy, alleging several violations of federal law and calling the new rule “cruel, abrupt and unlawful.”
Many universities have yet to decide whether they’re offering in-person courses this fall as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise nationwide. The Trump administration has been pressuring colleges to offer in-person classes, despite concerns about the spread of COVID-19, which has killed more than 135,000 people in the U.S.
