please sign and share
On July 6th, 2020 the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that they will be modifying their Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) impacting F-1 and M-1 international students.
Under the modified SEVP, F-1 and M-1 students with valid student visas would be forced to leave the United States if their college or university was not offering in-person classes.
International students pay the highest tuition to colleges and universities and shifting to an online-only syllabus does not reduce and shrink the economic burden of the high tuition costs. Forcing international students to pay these high costs while also forcing them to leave the country makes no sense and is unfair on many levels.
With the Covid-19 pandemic still spiking, the opening of in-person classes is unsafe and unnecessary given the current situation. These new SEVP modifications force universities to choose between opening in-person classes even if it is not safe or lose their International student body who account for a total of $45 Billion USD that is contributed to the US economy.
Please sign and share this petition! International students are being punished because their colleges are moving to online classes due to the Covid Pandemic! This would be a temporary exception during the pandemic to protect international students. Covid cases are rising in 37 states as of today so it makes sense that colleges are moving away from in-person classes to protect students and staff BUT now ICE is using that against these students. We are living through a pandemic so nothing is normal! Life isn’t normal and exceptions should be made while we try to navigate through a national pandemic that is only getting worse here in the United States. And let me point out that travel to/from the US is banned in many countries (like the EU for example) so what happens when a student is deported from the US but their home country has banned travel from the US?This is unfair and unjust! So again please sign & share!
