BUZZ
ANALYSIS: How does a reminder about following the law constitute … a threat?
This past Thursday, the University of California Berkeley International Office announced it is “temporarily suspending” applications for a program that allows international students to work in “paid off-campus internships.”
In a Daily Californian report titled “UC Berkeley yields to ICE threat, suspends course credit work applications for International Students,” it notes the announcement came a day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a memo informing universities certified with the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (“nearly all American colleges”) that “officials who improperly authorize” Course Credit Curricular Practical Training could be held liable (emphasis added).
The training, or CPT, allows international students “to work and gain practical experience off campus, either as a requirement of their degree or in exchange for course credit.”
The ICE memo (not linked by the paper) says the Student and Exchange Visitor Program “has observed a rise in CPT authorizations that do not meet regulatory requirements, specifically those not constituting an integral part of an established curriculum” (emphasis added).
If universities fail to comply, ICE “threatened to remove [their]’ abilities to enroll international students,” according to the student paper. The memo also “urged” internship-related authorizations only be given the green light for major fields of study.
The Daily Californian notes the memo is “unenforceable by law,” but that it “threatens […] legal consequences for both the individuals and universities found to be in violation of federal regulations” (emphasis added).
According to an email from BIO director Ivor Emmanuel, BIO reached out to legal counsel soon after receiving the memo, and will not resume processing applications until they are advised to do so.
“Please know that we do not take this decision lightly as we know the importance that course credit CPT plays in your academic journey,” Emmanuel said in an email sent to all international students. “We will support (international students) to the full extent allowed by law.”
Students with fully processed Course Credit CPT applications or who have already already received a CPT I-20 will not be affected, according to Emmauel.
Sandra Ding (pictured), the “East Asian and international student communities-endorsed” student government senator, complained that “without CPT, basically [international students] can no longer legally work.”
She lobbied her fellow UC Berkeley students to not vote “for the people who are doing this.”
“We cannot vote because we’re (immigrants),” Ding said. “Please make the right decisions when you are approaching the political election system.”
As the above italicized text indicates, it appears the government merely was reminding UC Berkeley and other universities about their responsibilities to comply with federal law and regulations. So why is Ding worried? Why does the Daily Californian refer to the memo as a “threat”?
MORE: Minority admissions are up across UC system, but not Berkeley. Its student paper is worried.
