A legal battle between universities and the Trump administration over foreign students and online learning escalated on Monday, ahead of a critical federal court hearing.
A Trump administration effort to force foreign college students to take in-person classes in the fall or lose their visas has prompted a high-stakes legal battle between the White House and some of America’s top universities, with 17 states and the District of Columbia joining the fray on Monday in a lawsuit that calls the policy “senseless and cruel.”
The visa guidelines, issued a week ago, would upend months of careful planning by colleges and universities and could force many students to return to their home countries during the pandemic, where their ability to study would be severely compromised.
The confrontation comes as the White House is pushing colleges and K-12 schools to throw open their doors to students, even as a growing number decide that it’s not safe. Many universities have chosen to allow a limited number of students on campus but to teach most classes virtually — a decision that President Trump has derided as “ridiculous.” Late last week, as his annoyance with universities grew, Mr. Trump threatened their nonprofit status.
Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both of which plan mostly online classes, were the first to challenge the new visa rules in court, saying they were hastily implemented in violation of federal procedures. Their lawsuit last week set up a high-stakes hearing scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, a day before the government is requiring schools to certify that students are taking in-person classes to meet the visa requirements.
Dozens of universities have weighed in with Harvard and M. I. T., and California’s attorney general and several universities filed their own suits in federal court late last week seeking to block the directive.
“The president is using foreign students as pawns to keep all schools open, no matter the cost to the health and well-being of these students and their communities,” said Mark Rosenbaum, a lawyer with Public Counsel, a legal aid organization in Los Angeles representing foreign graduate students at three California universities. “It’s temper-tantrum policymaking.”
The administration responded in court filings Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has the discretion to set student visa guidance, and that just because universities don’t like the requirements doesn’t make them against the law.
The government also pointed out that the directive allows foreign students to take more online classes than they could have a year ago, when only one virtual course was allowed.
