OCA decries ICE threat to deport international students

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

8 July 2020

Contact: Matthew Nguyen-Ngo | Civil Rights Fellow
202.223.5500 | matthew.nguyen.ngo@ocanational.org

Washington, DC – OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates was dismayed after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Monday that it would deport international students enrolled in schools holding online-only classes or who otherwise carry an online-only course load. This announcement comes after a series of xenophobic and anti-immigrant policies from the Trump Administration, including the May Proclamation 10043 suspending entry of certain Chinese international students, and proclamations in April and June banning immigrants that pose a “risk to the U.S. labor market.”

This announcement applies to students admitted under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), potentially affecting 1.55 million students, 75% of whom are Asian or Pacific Islander. Under this policy, international students taking a full course load at schools exclusively offering online classes will be deported. Additionally, the Department of State will stop issuing new visas to students enrolled in these schools, placing these students’ immigration status in jeopardy. Although ICE has not provided a rationale for this new policy, it is clear that current health crises are being exploited to justify extreme measures like deportations to keep immigrants out of the U.S.

ICE is issuing young immigrants a cruel ultimatum: choose your health or your degree. At institutions like Dartmouth College and Cornell University, for example, which are offering both in-person and online classes, this policy will create a dual-caste system where international students must risk exposure to COVID to attend in-person class, while U.S. residents can study from the safety of their homes. At universities offering exclusively online classes – like Harvard – students must delay their graduation, transfer to a different school, or be deported. (Harvard and MIT have sued the Trump Administration over ICE’s decision.) 

“This policy punishes those U.S. schools and their international students who have taken a safe and cautious approach to learning during the pandemic. The Administration must reverse this policy immediately, avoid international student deportations, and flexibly allow online classes as an option for the duration of the public health crisis,” says Roland Hwang, Vice President of Public Affairs. “During these extraordinary circumstances, we must exercise compassion and provide students with reasonable options for continuing their education.”

OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates is a national civil rights organization dedicated to improving the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).