Penn State, Carnegie Mellon join lawsuit to halt deportation of international students if colleges go totally online

Penn State and Carnegie Mellon universities have joined MIT and Harvard in a legal battle to halt implementation of a new policy from the Trump administration that could result in the deportation of international students.

Leaders at the Pennsylvania two research universities were quick to condemn the policy announced this week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that would result in the suspension of students’ visas unless they are attending classes in person.

Unlike Harvard and MIT, which have both announced plans to hold fall classes online rather than in person, both CMU and Penn State are planning a hybrid semester in which students would take a combination of online and in-person classes.

But Penn State, with an enrollment of about 10,000 international students, and CMU with 6,700, could be affected by the policy if a new surge of covid-19 infections force the schools to shutter classrooms and go to online education.

Their decision to join the legal battle is just the most recent development in a series of events that have seen colleges and universities here and across the country condemn the policy. Locally, the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania have publicly opposed the policy.

CMU President Farnam Jahanian on Thursday decried it in strong language in a message to the campus community.

“Forcing any international student who is in the United States legally to transfer or leave the country at this unprecedented time is profoundly misguided and painfully cruel. Furthermore, these and other rash, anti-immigration actions threaten to erode the very foundation of the American university system and its powerful and positive impact on economic prosperity and our national security,” Jahanian said.

He said the administration’s new policy is just another move in “the unjust scapegoating of international students and scholars.”

Penn State President Eric J. Barron likewise committed to join with universities across the country to fight the policy.

“We cannot assail this unjust edict enough, but if it remains, we will do everything in our power to support our international students as they work to finish their degrees on campus,” Barron said in announcing Penn State’s decision to join the lawsuit.

Some see the policy as part of President Trump’s push to force K-12 schools to colleges to resume classes in person this fall.

Many of the nation’s leading research universities have proved an attractive landing spot for talented international students in recent years as international enrollment surged to more than 1 million students last fall.

Those students typically pay the highest sticker price tuition.

According to the Institute for International Education’s 2019 report, international students nationally last fall contributed about $44.7 billion to the U.S. economy.