The Harvard Crimson reports that in court, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement took less than five minutes to revert from their previous position on international students, challenged by Harvard and MIT
That position would have required international students to take in-person classes considered high-risk during a pandemic, or leave the country, putting significant pressure on institutions of higher education.
Every Ivy League institution, as well as dozens of other peer institutions, signed amicus briefs in support of the Harvard-MIT lawsuit.
In March, ICE informed schools with international students that if they choose to “exercise temporary closure or make other significant operational or curricular changes,” they must inform ICE of those changes within 10 business days. The more flexible guidance allowed schools to follow state and local guidance on managing the COVID-19 crisis.
The administration’s position on undocumented immigrants likely remains unchanged, though the DACA program was recently preserved at the Supreme Court because the Trump administration did not give proper notice before revising the program.
Edit, 7/14/2020, 6 PM: The Trump administration is in talks about rolling back their July policy, reports the Wall Street Journal. One possibility is to only apply the restrictive policy to newly-enrolled international students.