Standing Up for International Students
Dear Neighbor,

This week, we learned that the Trump administration is threatening to deport international students studying at American colleges and universities if they are not enrolled in in-person classes during the upcoming fall semester. Their rule would require international students taking classes fully online to transfer to a school with in-person classes or pack up and leave the country.

Even for this administration, this is a shocking new low. 

We are in the middle of a global pandemic and, thanks to the president's catastrophic failure to contain the spread of the virus within our borders, many colleges and universities have been forced to implement online classes in an effort to keep their students, faculty, and staff safe. They are simply following the CDC's guidance that encourages remote learning, and their students are being punished for it.

There are more than a million international students enrolled in American universities, each of whom holds a valid visa. Their contributions to their schools and communities are undeniable, and our country as a whole is better off because they chose to study here. In fact, international students contributed some $44.7 billion to the US economy in 2018 alone. 

But while international students will, of course, shoulder the most severe consequences of this rule, no student will be immune from its effects. International students, by and large, tend to pay full tuition. In their absence, the sad reality is that colleges and universities will feel pressure to raise tuition on the remaining student body as they seek to make up for that loss in revenue.

This new policy is needlessly cruel, completely void of medical or scientific reasoning, and grossly counterproductive to our interests. It is nothing more than a flagrantly xenophobic attempt to hold international students hostage in order to force schools to reopen, even as COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket.

I will fight this.

Yesterday, I joined hundreds of my colleagues in the House and Senate in calling on the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security and the Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to immediately rescind this shameful policy. 

You can read our full letters here and here

Please know that, no matter what hateful policies this administration throws our way next, I will always fight for the rights and dignity of international students and immigrants. 

We are so much better than this. 

Please take care of yourselves and each other. As always, my office stands ready to help if you or a loved one need assistance. Please don't hesitate to call us at (703) 256-3071, or visit my website here.

Sincerely,

Gerald E. Connolly
Member of Congress
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