Coming as a sigh of relief, Trump dropped the idea of deportation of students who are undergoing full-time online study in the US. The decision had sparked nationwide outrage and a number of lawsuits filed against the decision, led by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
American IT companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft also joined MIT and Harvard in the US District Court of Massachusetts against the decision.
“I have been informed by the parties that they have come to a resolution. They will return to the status quo,” Judge Allison Burroughs, the Federal District Judge in Boston, said in a surprise statement at the top of the hearing in the lawsuit. The announcement comes as a big relief to the international students, including India. According to the recent report of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), 194556 Indian students were enrolled in various academic institutions in the US in January.
Earlier, India’s Foreign Secretary Mr. Harsh V Shringla had raised the matter with US Under Secretary of the State of Political Affairs David Hale regarding the matter.
In the last week, more than 136 Congressmen and 30 senators wrote to the Trump administration to rescind its order on international students. “This is a major victory for the students, organizers, and institutions of the higher education in the #MA7 and all across the country that stood up and fought back against this racist and xenophobic rule,” said Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.
“Taking online classes shouldn’t force international students out of our country,” Congressman Miki Sherrill said in a tweet.