This archive report was first published on 9 July 2020.
Published on July 9, 2020, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announcement has left hundreds of thousands of foreign students in the United States fearing for their future.
According to the Institute of International Education (IEE), there were over one million foreign students in the US in 2019, a doubling in 20 years.
"I might be affected if they don't offer any sort of in-person class," said Taimoor Ahmed, an information technology student at Cal State University in Los Angeles.
Harvard and MIT have launched a lawsuit against the Trump administration, asking the court to revoke the order that Harvard President Lawrence Bacow said had thrown higher education in the US "into chaos."
However, the action has done little to alleviate the worries of foreign students, who see themselves as collateral damage in Trump's aggressive push to force universities and schools to reopen fully in September amid his reelection campaign.
"I'm kind of scared actually," said an Indian graduate student at a major Texas university, who asked not to be named.
"The rule is really, really cruel," said an Indian graduate studying electrical engineering at one of the top universities in Arizona, where the virus is also surging.
More than 4,000 foreign students attend California's public universities, and another nearly 5,000 at Harvard in Massachusetts, establishments that plan to offer online-only education this fall.
Some 84 percent of universities are planning to offer a hybrid system of in-person and online classes, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education website, which would save students from deportation.
