We anticipate that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will publish its final public charge rule imminently, either later today or in the coming days. When the final rule is published, the Presidents’ Alliance and Community College Consortium for Immigrant Education (CCCIE) will issue a joint statement, which we will share with members.  

As we’ve previously documented , analyses of the proposed public charge rule (published last October 2018) showed that it would negatively impact immigrant families and international students, undermine the educational prospects and success of immigrant students, produce “chilling” effects—fewer immigrants access benefits they are legally entitled to—and overall, result in reduced levels of migration, as more prospective immigrants are denied entry on the basis of public charge determinations.   

  • Some of the “chilling” effects are already evident. A July Urban Institute study documents that one in seven adults in immigrant families report that they or other family members did not participate in a noncash government benefits program in 2018 out of fear of risking future green card status. Further, more adults in immigrant families are now more likely to avoid routine activities: “Reports show immigrant families increasingly avoiding routine activities, such as interacting with teachers or school officials, health care providers, and the police, which poses risks for their well-being and the communities in which they live.”

  • A recent POLITICO article reported on the skyrocketing denials of visas to Mexicans based on the existing public charge grounds. According to internal documents obtained by POLITICO, “Between Oct. 1 and July 29, the State Department denied 5,343 immigrant visa applications for Mexican nationals . . . up from just seven denials for Mexican applicants in fiscal year 2016 . . . .” Such denials will likely increase under the forthcoming public charge regulation. 

  • Likewise, recent news articles point to the impetus behind the public charge to reduce legal immigration, with emails detailing how senior administration officials were pushing the public charge rule to reduce legal immigration.

OPT Amicus Brief. We have learned from the status conference that was held on August 6th in the WashTech case that amicus briefs will be due October 25th in the case. For information on how to join the brief, click here . We will share more information regarding the case, its legal issues, the themes in the amicus brief, and an outline of the arguments in the coming weeks; and plan to hold a telephonic briefing for members in the first week of September. For an overview, see this useful article by Stuart Anderson regarding the existential threat to OPT that the ongoing Washtech litigation poses. 

DACA Amicus Brief. Amicus briefs for the DACA cases in front of the Supreme Court will be due October 4th . We continue to work diligently with Perkins Coie on the amicus brief; the arguments of the new brief will track with the core higher education arguments made previously, with new data, evidence and narratives. For more information on how to join the brief, click here .

Thank you to those institutions who have already indicated their interest in joining one or both briefs.

Finally, we also share a helpful article that speaks to the mixed messages that this administration is sending regarding international students, particularly Chinese international students. As the article notes, “[T]he Trump administration has sent mixed messages about its stance on Chinese students. Its policies, though, have been less equivocal. It is inarguably more difficult for Chinese students to come to study in the U.S. than it was two years ago.”

Thank you for your support.
 
Miriam Feldblum, Executive Director, and Jose Magaña-Salgado, Director of Policy and Communications
Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration