Dear Senator Feinstein, Senator Harris, and Representative Eshoo,
I am an independent voter who is deeply concerned about the fact that under ICE’s new rules, international students must choose between attending in-person classes during a pandemic or taking them online from another country.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still spiking in the United States, requiring colleges and universities to open for in-person instruction is unsafe and unnecessary. But 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.
International students 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.
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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