Dear Senator Lee, Senator Romney, and Representative McAdams,
I am an independent voter. I have grave concerns about the new ICE rules requiring international students to choose between attending in-person classes or taking them online from a different country during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I have worked with University of Utah faculty, and they have expressed similar concerns to me, as well as concerns about colleges and universities reopening as we enter the worst phase of the pandemic so far. This risks lives. And international graduate students are integral contributors to their research and alleviating the teaching burden by serving as RAs and TAs.
The new SEVP modifications announced on July 6 by ICE force institutions to choose between putting the health of their students and instructors at risk or losing their international students.
In addition to the vital role international students play in higher education, they also pay the highest rates of tuition to colleges and universities — money that often subsidizes the tuition of domestic students. ICE’s recent decision to force students to leave the country if they cannot access in-person classes due to the pandemic is unfair on many levels.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, international students comprised over 5% of U.S. college enrollment and contributed approximately $45 billion dollars to the U.S. economy in 2018.
America thrives when we attract foreign talent and intellect to our shores, but the number of new international students choosing to study in the United States has steadily decreased over the last four years as we become a less welcoming country.
Losing foreign students would be a huge blow to university budgets and will impact domestic students as well, whose tuition is lowered by the full tuition paid by international students. Similarly, forcing individuals to attend classes in person presents health risks to everyone present at the institution.
And these are not abstract concerns. I have two sisters attending graduate school in the United Kingdom. Were the UK to apply similar rules, I would be furious at how callous and unnecessary the measures were and the risk it would pose to my family.
I want my representatives to understand that this policy will have tangible adverse economic consequences in our state and may end up aggravating attempts to control the COVID-19 virus.
Given the value of foreign students to our country and the unprecedented health crisis we are facing, I would ask that all our students — foreign and domestic — be granted the ability to continue their studies without fear for their health or, in the case of our visiting students, the looming specter of possible deportation.
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