Seventeen US states and the District of Columbia sued the administration of President Donald Trump to reject the federal government’s the latest rule stripping overseas learners of their visas if the institution they are enrolled in only provides on the net teaching this fall because of to the coronavirus pandemic.

Led by the Massachusetts legal professional general’s business office, the lawsuit came just one particular 7 days following the US Division of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unveiled pointers vowing to invalidate international students’ F-1 and M-1 visas if the academic establishment they are enrolled in switches to online-only programs, probably depriving them of their lawful standing of keep in the United States, Xinhua information company claimed on Monday.

“The Trump Administration failed to even try to make clear the foundation for this senseless rule, which forces universities to pick out between retaining their global college students enrolled and preserving the health and protection of their campuses,” Massachusetts Attorney Basic Maura Healey explained in a assertion.

‘Cruel, abrupt, and unlawful motion to expel worldwide students’

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Courtroom in Boston, sought an injunction to stop the complete rule from likely into result, accusing the federal authorities of partaking in a “cruel, abrupt, and illegal motion to expel international college students amidst the pandemic that has wrought dying and disruption throughout the United States.”

Signing up for Massachusetts in the lawsuit are the attorneys basic from Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The lawsuit alleged that the administration’s “actions are arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion because they reverse previous steering with no explanation, input, or rationale,” including that the new rules violated “the Administrative Treatment Act – and fall short to consider the will need to protect public overall health and protection amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”

“The lawsuit incorporates a request for speedy preliminary relief blocking the rule from likely into influence though the scenario is litigated, and the attorneys common have asked for a hearing as shortly as probable,” the Massachusetts legal professional general’s business reported in a press release.

Declared on July 6, the ICE’s controversial buy mentioned that global learners who are only provided on the web classes in the impending semester “have to depart the state or choose other steps, this sort of as transferring to a school with in-man or woman instruction to stay in lawful position.”

All those who violate the procedures “may well encounter immigration penalties like, but not minimal to, the initiation of elimination proceedings,” the ICE said.