United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Friday it will not permit newly enrolled international students to enter the U.S. unless they take in-person classes in the fall.

The announcement confirmed that ICE would follow guidance it issued in March prohibiting newly enrolled students from traveling to the U.S if they do not take in-person classes. Syracuse University officials said in a campus-wide email Friday that the ruling would not have a substantial effect on international students at the university. 

“We recognize these shifting (policies) continue to cause unnecessary anxiety, fear and frustration for our international student community,” said Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost John Liu, graduate school dean Peter Vanable and Amanda Nicholson, interim deputy senior vice president for the division of enrollment and the student experience, in the email. “However, this directive should not have a significant impact on our Syracuse University students.”

The university has registered 99% of students for in-person or hybrid classes for the fall, the officials said. SU will work with any newly enrolled international students taking online-only courses to help them adhere to ICE’s guidelines, they said.

The university will also ensure newly enrolled graduate international students have access to in-person courses, the officials said.

On July 9, ICE issued a controversial policy that threatened international students residing in the United States with deportation unless they took in-person classes in the fall. The agency rescinded that ruling five days later, after Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a lawsuit against the federal government, which SU and several other universities joined.

ICE’s announcement Friday ensured that international students will be able to remain in the U.S. should SU transition to online-only classes after the semester has begun, as it did in the spring.

“Today’s guidance did offer one assurance,” Liu, Vanable and Nicholson said. “Should Syracuse University transition from residential, in-person/hybrid learning to online learning after the semester has already begun due to the pandemic, international students will not be penalized, nor will they have to leave the country.”

Published on July 24, 2020 at 10:12 pm

Contact Chris: cjhippen@syr.edu