Public univ. 'encourages' students to fight 'unjust' Trump policy

UPDATE: The Department of Homeland Security has reversed it decision to force international students studying in the U.S. to return home.

---

Original story below: 

Binghamton University’s Multicultural Resource Center sent students an email encouraging them to take efforts to “provide support to their international peers.”

ICE recently updated its policies for nonimmigrant students continuing virtual learning during the fall semester. The update states that “the U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States.”

The MRC and Binghamton University community “are saddened over the modification of the ICE exemptions,” the email to students states. Given that the university represents more than 100 students, the message continues, the school is “outraged by this new policy.”

[RELATED: Binghamton cuts police funding to ‘realize a society where Black Lives Matter’]

The email provides students with resources to challenge ICE’s policy. The MRC states that it wants to “encourage you to sign the petitions and send the drafted letter from the SUNY Student Assembly to your Congress members.”

The petition, titled “Let international students stay in the U.S. Say no to SEVP and ICE,” has more than 100,000 signatures and demands that “the SEVP needs to allow international students to continue their studies in the U.S..” Deporting students back to their home countries during the pandemic “is inhumane and vile.” The policy must be changed because “the U.S. treating these students with little to no decency.”

The SUNY Student Assembly letter states that by forcing international students home, “we are forcibly alienating intelligent and hardworking people.”

[RELATED: Harvard, MIT sue Trump admin over new student visa policy]

“Students from across the State of New York implore you to do everything you can to reverse this disastrous decision,” the letter states.

Currently, the university “will not operate fully online in the Fall 2020 semester.” International students will be able to sign up for in-person classes as the university develops a plan “to fight this unjust policy.”

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @KestecherLacey