Facebook, US states join Harvard, MIT’s fight against Trump administration directive to deport online-only foreign students

Tech firms argue the directive violates a federal law meant to protect businesses from arbitrary decisions that could adversely affect operations

Government argues that earlier guidance warned that international students’ ability to remain in US for online courses was subject to change

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Facebook, other tech firms and business advocacy groups support Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in their bid to fight a US government directive regarding international students. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:58am, 14 Jul 2020Updated: 9:59pm, 14 Jul 2020

Facebook, the US Chamber of Commerce and more than a dozen other tech firms and business advocacy groups aligned to support Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in their bid to fight a US government directive that threatens to deport thousands of international students.

Google, Twitter and Spotify are also signatories to the amicus brief filed on Monday with the US District Court in Boston, Massachusetts, arguing that the directive issued by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division last week violated a decades-old federal law meant to protect businesses from arbitrary decisions that could adversely affect business operations.

“The Administrative Procedure Act [APA] required defendants … to consider the serious consequences for the US business community and the entire economy that would result from a directive requiring more than half of all international students to leave the country, and also to take account of the substantial reliance interests of US companies that would be disrupted by such a decision,” said the brief filed by Facebook.

Students walk through Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in March. Photo: Reuters

Enacted in 1946, the APA requires agencies of the US government to, among other provisions, provide for public participation in their rule-making process, for instance through public commenting. Part of Harvard and MIT’s argument against ICE’s move includes the fact that there was no notice-and-comment period.

Scores of US states, municipalities and the District of Columbia have also joined the effort to block ICE’s move as the spread of Covid-19 in the country raises the risk that full classrooms will only exacerbate the pandemic.