City of Pittsburgh Joins Pitt, CMU in International Student Lawsuit

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Photo credit Ron Ahearn

PITTSBURGH (Newsradio 1020 KDKA) - The City of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh have joined a lawsuit challenging the ICE and the Trump administration’s decision to make international students leave the county if their colleges are only offering online courses this fall due to the pandemic.

The lawsuit was originally filed by Harvard University and MIT.

More than 200 universities have joined, including Carnegie Mellon. A judge is scheduled to hear arguments in the case later on Tuesday.

On Monday, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit along with nearly 20 other Attorneys General across the United States to stop.

In a statement, Shapiro was critical of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

“Betsy Devos’s attempt to take advantage of an international pandemic—to push a cynical, partisan agenda that threatens the health and safety of young people who want to pursue an education—is cruel, illegal, and puts our already fragile economy at risk,” said Attorney General Shapiro. “I’m working hard to ensure that students in Pennsylvania can safely continue their education at universities across the Commonwealth in the fall, without fear of partisan interference.”

Shapiro says the decision threatens states in a number of ways:

  • Fails to consider the health and safety of students, faculty, and staff;
  • Fails to consider the tremendous costs and administrative burden it would impose on schools to readjust plans and certify students;
  • Fails to consider that, for many international students, remote learning in their home countries is not possible;
  • Imposes significant financial harm to schools, as international students pay hundreds of millions of dollars in tuition, housing, dining, and other fees;
  • Imposes harm to schools’ academic, extracurricular, and cultural communities, as international students contribute invaluable perspectives and diverse skillsets; and
  • Forces colleges and universities to offer in-person classes amid a pandemic or lose significant numbers of international students who will either have to leave the country, transfer, or disenroll from the school.

 

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