Surprise move, Trump administration reverses course on barring many foreign students

In a highly anticipated court hearing on Tuesday in the case brought by Harvard, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Massachusetts said the U.S. government and the two elite universities that sued had come to a settlement that would roll back the new rules and restore the previous status quo.

The hearing lasted less than four minutes.

The controversy began after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it would re-instate rules for international students on F-1 and M-1 visas that limit the number of online courses foreign students can take if they want to remain in the United States. Those rules had been temporarily waived due to the public health crisis. Many academic institutions assumed they would be extended, not rolled back.

The DHS official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the details of any future regulation on this issue remain under discussion.

In particular, DHS officials are still deciding whether to treat students already in the United States differently than students seeking to enter the country for the first time, according to the official.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led a separate lawsuit challenging the visa rules, said in a written statement Trump’s “arbitrary actions” put the health of students and communities at risk.

“In the midst of an economic and public health crisis, we don’t need the federal government alarming Americans or wasting everyone’s time and resources with dangerous policy decisions,” Becerra said.

ICE and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.