While the US welcomes visitors from around the world to its ports of entry for World Cup games across the country, some living in the US will likely be returning to their home countries after a recent Supreme Court ruling. President Trump has faced legal pushback from federal judges after he sought to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrian refugees living in the US. But a ruling from the Supreme Court last week effectively overturned these federal judge decisions and gave permission to the President to remove these protections from Haitian and Syrian nationals. The move affects nearly 350,000 Haitians and over 6,000 Syrians who have sought refugee status. The Trump administration considers TPS to be part of “egregious abuses” to our immigration system, while critics of this decision say that it threatens to “upend the lives of thousands of displaced individuals who were forced to flee their homes…many of whom have lived in the US for decades,” separate families, negatively impact employers and the economy, and cause further harm to higher education (thepienews.com). The Pie further points out that “the rulings were part of a ‘broader pattern’ of restrictions on immigration to the US, including an ‘unprecedented’ series of policies impacting higher education, including Trump’s travel ban which remains in place for nearly 40 countries.”
However, in a win for travel ban nationals, a judge recently ruled that the travel bans should not affect an individual’s application for change of status when they are already legally in the US. Students from travel ban countries who have graduated and applied for OPT have been left to wait, indefinitely, for their I-765 to be processed–leaving some of them in limbo as their grace periods end. USCIS has not been processing any change of status requests from travel ban countries, including OPT applications–which are technically NOT a change of status. Judge McConnel ruled this processing pause unlawful, which “marks a victory for a coalition of immigrant service organizations and labour unions that filed the case in March” (thepienews.com). Advisors are encouraged to keep a close eye on this case, though, as appeals are expected and may further jeopardize student statuses while awaiting work authorization.
And finally, the news we’ve all been waiting for and…are still waiting for, but with a small (big) update: the Duration of Status changes have been cleared by the Office of Management and Budget (Inside Higher Ed). This means that the only thing left is to wait (as if we haven’t done enough of that) for the change to be finalized by the Department of Homeland Security. Any changes the White House made to the originally proposed changes have not been made public, so advisors and ISSS departments are continuing to hold their breath and their plans until they know the extent of the new rule. Once published by DHS, schools have 60 days to implement the changes; at this point, it seems unlikely that the incoming Fall class will be impacted by these new rules so perhaps the delay will allow for an unexpected adjustment period.
From our world to yours, that’s the latest from international education this month.
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