Harvard, MIT sue Trump admin to block deportation of online-only students

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Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today sued the Trump administration to block an action that forces foreign students with nonimmigrant visas to leave the United States or transfer to different schools that offer in-person classes. The schools' complaint, filed in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, asks for a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction preventing the administration from enforcing the new policy issued by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In the complaint, Harvard and MIT said:

By all appearances, ICE's decision reflects an effort by the federal government to force universities to reopen in-person classes, which would require housing students in densely packed residential halls, notwithstanding the universities' judgment that it is neither safe nor educationally advisable to do so, and to force such a reopening when neither the students nor the universities have sufficient time to react to or address the additional risks to the health and safety of their communities. The effect-and perhaps even the goal-is to create as much chaos for universities and international students as possible.

The ICE policy will be especially problematic for Harvard and MIT students from certain countries, such as "Syria, where civil war and an ongoing humanitarian crisis make Internet access and study all but impossible," the lawsuit said. "Others come from Ethiopia, where the government has a practice of suspending all Internet access for extended periods, including presently, starting on June 30, 2020."

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