International Students On Hold In Wake Of Administration’s Deportation Threat

International Students On Hold In Wake Of Administration’s Deportation Threat
Princeton University. (Photo by Dan McCue)

WASHINGTON – International students at universities across the country have been rattled and confused by a new Trump administration rule that threatens to deport them if they are unable to attend in-person classes in the fall. 

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency on Monday said that foreign students enrolled in programs taught entirely online must leave the country or transfer to another school that offers in-person classes.

Students who defy the rule by staying in the country will “face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings,” ICE said in a statement.

President Trump has pressured universities to fully reopen their campuses in the fall, defying advice from his own health experts who say the move could put students and staff at risk during the coronavirus pandemic. 

On Monday, the president said school closures were a politically motivated effort to undermine his re-election campaign. “The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families,” he said in a tweet. “May cut off funding if not open!”

Critics have assailed the new immigration decree as a dangerous effort by the Trump administration to bully universities to resume in-person classes despite a recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases in dozens of states.

Now, with just weeks before classes start, America’s more than 1 million foreign students are scrambling to figure out whether they’ll be allowed to pursue their education or forced to pack up and leave.

“It’s awful,” says Siobhan B., an Irish student at the State University of New York who declined to give her last name for fear of deportation. “It’s just put so many people in such a bad spot.”

Like many institutions, SUNY is pursuing a “hybrid” learning model in the fall that mixes virtual learning with some in-person classes. But Siobhan worries that not all foreign students will be able to register for in-person classes due to limited capacity.

“Every single international student at my school is going to be rambling for a chance to get into whatever in-person classes we’re going to be having,” says the philosophy and biochemistry major. “I highly doubt every single one of them is going to be accommodated.”

On top of losing her education, Siobhan could also be putting her health at risk if she is forced to leave the country due to an underlying lung condition that makes her vulnerable to the coronavirus. “Taking a cross-Atlantic flight back to Ireland would not work for me,” she says. “I can’t fly.”

For foreign students, obtaining a U.S. visa or keeping legal immigration status has become particularly difficult during the coronavirus crisis, Siobhan says. Many U.S. embassies across the world have either closed or stopped issuing visas in the last few months.

“When you’re an immigrant student — even without this administration — you constantly have your status in the back of your head,” says Siobhan. “We’re essentially temporary residents of the country with no legal recourse most of the time. It’s hard being a student here and it’s just gotten worse in the past two years.”

Facing severe budget shortfalls due to campus closures and a drop in enrollment numbers, some U.S. colleges are pushing back against the Trump administration’s new rule.

Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a joint federal lawsuit against DHS and ICE on Wednesday, claiming the new rule “would undermine the education, safety, and future prospects of their international students.”

“We are deeply concerned that the guidance issued today by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement imposes a blunt, one-size-fits-all approach to a complex problem, giving international students, particularly those in online programs, few options beyond leaving the country or transferring schools,” said Harvard President Lawrence Bacow in a statement.

Foreign students contributed nearly $45 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018, making up 5.5% of the total student body at U.S. universities, according to a study published last year by the Institute of International Education.

Martin Basiri, CEO of ApplyBoard, a Canadian website that helps foreign students in U.S. colleges, says his company has received hundreds of calls in the last few days.

“It’s just a lot of anxiety –– a lot of families are worried,” Basiri said. “We are talking about very young people who left their country for a hope of getting a better education,” he added.

Basiri says the timing of the latest DHS ruling leaves many students in the lurch. “Education systems are not designed so that you can easily transfer in your third year or fourth year to another school and continue — especially a month or two before the semester starts,” he says.

Julie Grandjean, a Belgian doctoral student at Texas Tech University, says the current climate for international students in the U.S. has left her feeling “ostracized.”

“I have not told my parents because then they would definitely want me to go back to Belgium right now, which I’m not doing because then I might not be able come back to the U.S. in this situation,” says Grandjean, who is studying visual communications.

Grandjean says she was fortunate to be able to register for an in-person course, though some of her friends weren’t as lucky. “It’s just been very stressful the past couple of days,” she says. ‘It’s been a lot of running around and trying to figure out what to do, how to do it, emailing hundreds of people a day.”

She’s grateful for the help she has received from American friends and from the administration at Texas Tech University. “I feel really supported by my circle, but definitely let down by this administration.”

A+
a-
  • deportation
  • Donald Trump
  • Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency
  • International students
  • Trump administration
  • In The News

    Health

    Voting

    Education

    July 14, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    Supreme Court Green-Lights Dismantling of Education Department

    WASHINGTON — In a major victory for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the White House... Read More

    WASHINGTON — In a major victory for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the White House can move forward with plans to lay off nearly 1,400 employees at the Department of Education. As is their custom in dispensing with emergency orders, the... Read More

    A Century After a Man Was Convicted of Teaching Evolution, the Debate on Religion in Schools Rages

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — One hundred years ago, a public high school teacher stood trial in Dayton, Tennessee, for teaching... Read More

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — One hundred years ago, a public high school teacher stood trial in Dayton, Tennessee, for teaching human evolution. His nation is still feeling the reverberations today. The law books record it as State of Tennessee v. John T. Scopes. History remembers it... Read More

    July 8, 2025
    by Alexa Citrin
    Trump Crackdown on Pro-Palestinian Campus Activists Goes to Trial 

    BOSTON — A trial over the Trump administration’s attempts to deport international students and scholars involved in pro-Palestinian activism on... Read More

    BOSTON — A trial over the Trump administration’s attempts to deport international students and scholars involved in pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses began on Monday with the plaintiffs arguing the efforts threaten to upend free speech rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. “Not since the McCarthy... Read More

    June 27, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    Justices Side With Parents in Battle to Opt Children Out of LGBTQ Instruction

    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday held that a Maryland school district’s failure to allow parents to opt their... Read More

    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday held that a Maryland school district’s failure to allow parents to opt their children out of exposure to “LGBTQ+-inclusive” storybooks very likely placed an unconstitutional burden on the families’ rights to the free exercise of their religion.  As a... Read More

    June 16, 2025
    by Cara Cervenka
    Education Advocates Urge Senators to Reject the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

    WASHINGTON — Advocates from several educational organizations gathered outside the Russell Senate Office Building last week to urge the Senate... Read More

    WASHINGTON — Advocates from several educational organizations gathered outside the Russell Senate Office Building last week to urge the Senate to reject the so-called "big, beautiful bill” they contend will gut public school funding. Standing in the shadow of the Capitol, educators and parents decried the... Read More

    Public Universities Remain America's Best Investment — and They’re More Affordable Than You Think

    “Colleges aren’t turning out the right kind of student[s].” That was the take offered by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a recent... Read More

    “Colleges aren’t turning out the right kind of student[s].” That was the take offered by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a recent podcast appearance, where one of the leading voices in the tech industry echoed an argument we're hearing far too often: college is no longer an investment... Read More

    News From The Well
    scroll top