Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a lawsuit in District Court in Boston Wednesday morning against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to University President Lawrence S. Bacow.
The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary and permanent injunctive relief to bar the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from enforcing federal guidelines barring international students attending colleges and universities offering only online courses from staying in the United States.
The guidelines would mandate that they transfer to an institution offering in-person instruction or risk “immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.”
“The order came down without notice—its cruelty surpassed only by its recklessness,” Bacow wrote in an email to affiliates. “We believe that the ICE order is bad public policy, and we believe that it is illegal.”
DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The guidelines were released just hours after Harvard announced it would house no more than 40 percent of undergraduates and would hold all College classes online in the fall.
“We will pursue this case vigorously so that our international students—and international students at institutions across the country—can continue their studies without the threat of deportation,” Bacow wrote.
To read this article in it’s entirety, please visit The Harvard Crimson.