GAGE Statement on DHS’s New Attack on International Students
Jeffrey Tsoi, Chair of the International Graduate Student Committee
At the beginning of the summer, we drew attention to a new US immigration policy that sought to deport all international students who had planned to take all-online courses during the fall semester due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In response to pressure from international students and their allies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rescinded that policy. Now, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched another attack on international students by limiting the visas of international students. Defeating this rule will require the same collective action that led ICE to rescind their initial repressive policy.
Join us in submitting a public comment to DHS about the disastrous effects of their new policy for international students and student workers.
The DHS rule threatens to impose a four-year ceiling on the length of student visas, after which a student has to apply for DHS approval of an extension of stay, based on a limited number of acceptable reasons. This rule will be especially burdensome for PhD students, whose academic programs are typically longer than 4 years. International students already face a multitude of burdens and financial constraints. They are ineligible to apply to most fellowships, must pay taxes on their stipends, and deal with expenditures with visa paperwork which are not refunded by the university.
DHS threatening to submit international PhD students like myself to additional scrutiny just so that we can complete our academic studies only serves to deepen existing patterns of discrimination and exclusion in American higher education. As a union, we are committed to realizing a more just and equitable vision of our university community that welcomes international students regardless of their country of origin. The policy places particular burdens on students from countries in the Middle East and Africa, who already experience discrimination and xenophobia in the United States on a day-to-day basis.
We learned earlier this summer that our concerted efforts can defeat this discriminatory policy. As a union, we encourage our members to submit comments to DHS condemning this new policy before the end of the comment period on October 25, 2020. These comments are our first step toward holding the US government accountable to our vision of more just and inclusive higher education. We also ask that the Georgetown administration speak out against the effects of this policy on our university community and join other schools to sue DHS for the impact of these programs on our collective welfare. Here are some prompts to help you write your unique comment:
- What particular hardships have you encountered as an international student/have you heard that international students encounter?
- How do you think the rule will further exacerbate those hardships?
- How do international students’ work contribute to the university and society?
- How do you think the rule will affect academia and the society in general?
- In what ways do you think the rule is discriminatory and xenophobic?
