Educational Institutions Take On ICE Directive Targeting International Students

On July 13, 2020, Proskauer filed an amicus brief on behalf of 15 educational institutions in support of a preliminary injunction sought by Harvard University and MIT in the District of Massachusetts against enforcement of a new policy directive by the U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agency (ICE). The ICE directive seeks to make the availability of international study in the United States dependent upon whether international students attend class in person notwithstanding the worldwide pandemic.

Background

ICE issued the directive on June 6, 2020, requiring international students enrolled in U.S. schools for fall 2020 on F-1 visas to attend in-person courses at their schools if they wished to retain their visa. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the directive demands that such international students either transfer to a school with physical instruction (even while many schools have made the public health decision to offer online courses only) and