The United States government on Tuesday rescinded its order that would have stripped international college students of their visas if th...
The United States government on Tuesday rescinded its order that would have stripped
international college students of their visas if their courses move fully online because of the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reported. This came after widespread opposition to the move and pressure from colleges and major businesses.
Two days after the policy was announced on July 6, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had filed the first lawsuit to block the Donald Trump administration’s order. Both the universities said in their lawsuit that the order would harm students immensely, adding that it was “cruel and illegal”. Harvard had announced it would conduct all classes online in the 2020-’21 academic year.
Minutes before the hearing in the case, District Judge Allison Burroughs in Massachusetts announced that the US government and the two elite American universities had come to a settlement to drop the new rules and restore status quo, according to Reuters.
“The government has agreed to rescind the decision as well as any implementation of the directive,” Burroughs said in hearing which lasted less than four minutes.
The pressure to abandon the move grew after Google, Facebook and Microsoft were among more than a dozen technology companies that backed the lawsuit on Monday. As many as 17 US states and the District of Columbia had filed a lawsuit...
