22 state coalition challenges international student rule change

ImmigrationProf blog previously posted that Department of Homeland Security has proposed a rule change that would limit international students and other temporary visa holders to fixed terms betwee two and four years. Twenty-two state attorneys general are now opposing the rule.

In a letter sent Monday to acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, the attorneys general criticized the agency for rushing through the process implementing the rule. They said that it discourages foreign students and media from coming to the U.S. and possibly violates federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).  The proposed rule is “arbitrary and capricious, and therefore cannot withstand scrutiny under the APA, on several grounds, including faulty logic, defective data, and tenuous reasoning,” the letter said. In addition,t he 22 attorneys general criticized the move as “xenophobic” and the time limits are “unduly burdensome.”

The letter was led by District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine (D) and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D). Racine and Healey were joined on the letter by the state attorney generals for California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

DHS, in its notice of the proposed rule, said that the two-year visa restriction will depend on if a student was born in a country that is designated as a state sponsor of terrorism; if a student is from one of 55 countries that has an immigration overstay rate of more than 10 percent; and whether a school or program sponsor is in an “E-verify participant in good standing.” E-verify is a federal program that requires enrollment by employers who contract with the government. Separately, USCIS sent 700 letters to OPT recipients to alert them that their permits will be revoked and another 400 permits will not be renewed when they expire as part of a crackdown on the program last week. ICE also arrested 15 students for claiming to work with companies that do not exist, in violation of the program. 

MHC