ICE announced yesterday that foreign students at schools that only instruct online this fall (which includes my alma mater Harvard) must leave the US. I was a foreign student on an F1 visa and would have been distressed by this. More importantly there are quite a few foreign students for whom there is not enough time, or not enough money, or even worse a threat to their lives in their home countries. This is yet another one of those recent US policies where the only plausible assessment is that “the cruelty is the point.”

The ability to attract foreign students to our universities has been wonderful for the United States and the world. A great many international friendships that have lasted a lifetime are formed among students. The presence of foreign students helps expand the cultural context for American students and vice versa. Many talented foreign students wind up staying here and starting companies or contributing to existing companies. And so on.

I hope this nonsense gets challenged in court right away and if anyone is aware of such a challenge I will happily contribute to it. In the meantime, I have signed (well tried to sign, subject to email verification which seems to be down) this White House petition.