Trump administration no longer forcing international students to leave U.S. amid coronavirus pandemic

The Trump administration has rescinded its controversial rule that would have stripped thousands of international students of their visas amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The reversal was announced Tuesday by a a U.S. District judge who was hearing a lawsuit filed by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Boston Herald reports.

“I have been informed by the parties that they have come to a resolution,” U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said during a Tuesday hearing.

“The government has agreed to rescind the July 6, 2020 policy directive,” the judge said.

Under the order, international students would have been forced to leave the U.S. if they were exclusively taking online classes.

Many Michigan colleges have not yet decided whether to offer in-person courses this fall as the number of new coronavirus cases continues to rise nationwide.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Monday joined 17 other states in a lawsuit aimed at reversing the order, arguing it violates several federal laws and is “cruel, abrupt, and unlawful.”

“This is just another example of the Trump administration using our educational system to make a political statement, at the expense of our students and schools,” Nessel said Monday.

The Trump administration has been pressuring colleges to offer in-person classes, despite concerns about the spread of COVID-19, which has killed more than 135,000 people in the U.S.

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