Ohio TESOL Response to ICE guidance

Ohio TESOL Response to ICE guidance banning International Students from online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Ohio Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (Ohio TESOL), as an organization of program administrators, educators and advocates of English as a second language students, strongly opposes the July 6, 2020, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) modifications to the United States’ Student Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) regulations, stating that international students with F-1 and M-1 visas, “attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States.” Further it states that students with F-1 visas may not take a fully online course load even if their university or college is adopting a hybrid model. Students risk violation of their visas and deportation if in-person or hybrid courses shift to fully online courses mid semester. 

These new regulations reverse the common-sense accommodations made to SEVP regulations during the Spring 2020 term to allow international students to continue coursework in the online formats deemed to pose the least risk to public health and safety by their colleges and universities during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. This Fall 2020, many U.S. colleges and universities have transitioned to fully online or hybrid course formats as COVID-19 rates continue to rise in the U.S. These updated SEVP regulations make an already difficult and perilous situation for international students enrolled within U.S. intensive English programs (IEP), undergraduate, and graduate programs even more untenable, as students have no control over the format of courses that their institutions are offering, and many institutions have chosen online course formats for the fall as to continue to ensure public health and safety. Our international students are valued members of our campus and local communities and economies; these regulations place students at risk of not being able to the complete coursework necessary for their programs and degree paths and place a variety of IEP, undergraduate, and graduate programs at risk of student attrition, thus endangering the enrollments and financial well being of the thousands of U.S. colleges and universities with substantial international student populations. Furthermore, these regulations place the health and safety of students who may lose their student visas at risk if they are deported and asked to travel home during a time of limited international flights and increased COVID-19 exposure to airline passengers. 

Ohio TESOL compels ICE to reverse these recent SEVP modifications and revert to the temporary adapted guidelines implemented in March 2020 through the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic to allow U.S. higher education institutions the ability to support and retain their international students.

– Ohio TESOL Board, 2020

Footnote 1 – The Commerce Department puts international student contributions to the United States economy at $45 billion in 2018. A 2019 report shows that 62% of all international students receive the majority of their funds from sources outside of the United States.

(Our statement follows the joint statement by English USA, TESOL International, and Universities & Colleges Intensive English Programs (UCIEP) which can be found here: https://www.tesol.org/docs/default-source/advocacy/joint-statement-englishusa-tesol-uciep.pdf?sfvrsn=ab15fadc_0 )

You can take direct action by using the tool that TESOL has set up here to send e-mails voicing your concern to the President, the Vice-President, and the Acting Director of Homeland Security. https://www.votervoice.net/TESOL/campaigns/75686/respond