Community Statement Opposing ICE Guidance on Foreign Students

The biological sciences research and education community is deeply concerned by the July 6, 2020, guidance from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that would force international students to leave the country if they do not participate in in-person instruction during the fall 2020 semester. The new ICE guidance should be rescinded immediately. At a time when the United States has recognized the importance of safeguarding and strengthening our bioeconomy and protecting our intellectual property, one must ask: Why is the Administration implementing policy that will weaken the United States by forcing the world's best and brightest science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students to contribute their intellectual and economic capital to our global competitors? In addition to jeopardizing public health and safety by ignoring the continuing rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus in communities across the United States, this policy causes additional economic harm to individuals, communities, and colleges across the country. It threatens the long-term competitiveness of the U.S. scientific, technological, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) enterprise. It needlessly adds additional stress, complexity, and economic burden to individual students who will have their lives further disrupted. While all sectors of the United States economy, including higher education institutions, are working to identify responsible strategies for invi...
Source: AIBS News - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news