This deadline is in 15 days ⏰

July 2, 2020

Dear Presidents' Alliance Member,

In this week’s Member Update:

NEW! Template for Your Institution to Submit a Comment on the Department of Education’s Emergency Financial Grant Rule
Ending DACA Would Limit Access to Higher Education in Ten States
ICYMI: Last Week’s Briefing
Webinar on Impact of the Supreme Court's DACA Decision
Immigration in the Time of Coronavirus
Spring Regulatory Agenda is Out!
Top Reads

NEW! Template for Your Institution to Submit a Comment on the Department of Education’s Emergency Financial Grant Rule. We partnered with Community College Consortium for Immigrant Education and TheDream.US to create Higher Education Template Comment for CARES Act Emergency Grant Exclusions , a new template that your institution can utilize to submit a comment in response to the U.S. Department of Education proposed interim final rule excluding DACA recipients and undocumented students from the emergency financial grants under the CARES Act.

Deadline: We encourage your institution to adapt this template and submit a comment by July 17, 2020.

Contents of the Template: The template enables institutions to focus their comments on the impact of the interim final rule: (1) impact and costs to students ineligible for Title IV assistance, DACA and undocumented students; (2) impact and costs to students eligible for Title IV assistance who do not have documentation in place establishing their eligibility; and (3) the direct and indirect costs to institutions. The template also includes other options, and you can adapt and use what you want.

Why Submit an Institutional Comment? Your comment is critical in building an administrative record for the problematic nature of this rule and supporting ongoing and ongoing and future litigation–with two lawsuits already filed, your comments can be tremendously helpful. Federal law requires that the Department read, review, and consider all comment letters . The Department specifically invites public comments and states that it will “consider these comments in determining whether to revise the rule.”

Additionally, to support your drafting, we also share a related toolkit by SEIU , which provides talking points, messaging, and additional sample language.

Ending DACA Would Limit Access to Higher Education in Ten States. Check out our new resource, Policy Brief: Ending DACA Would Limit Access to Higher Education in Ten States . This policy brief examines the impact of ending DACA on access to higher education. It notes that ending DACA would block thousands of current DACA recipients and DACA-eligible individuals—who may now be eligible to apply for and obtain DACA for the first time–from either enrolling in public institutions or being eligible for in-state tuition in ten states. The Supreme Court ruled on June 18, 2020 to maintain DACA in place, but the decision does not preclude the administration from attempting to end DACA again. The Presidents’ Alliance is tracking this closely, and you can view our new policy brief here .

ICYMI: Last Week’s Briefing . In response to the presidential proclamation last week introducing an expanded suspension of several categories of employment visa, Presidents’ Alliance held a rapid response briefing, Presidential Proclamation & Its Impacts on Higher Education and Other Sectors . Close to 600 individuals from hundreds of campuses registered. The briefing featured leading immigration legal experts, litigators, student voices, and campus perspectives discussing everything from the specifics of the proclamation to next steps for universities. The recorded briefing and supporting materials are available here .

Webinar on Impact of the Supreme Court's DACA Decision. The following webinar, DACA Decision and What it Means for Higher Education , provides information on resources that California organizations and/or higher education institutions are offering to impacted immigrant students. The webinar, hosted by the Foundation for California Community Colleges, The California State University, and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, among other partners, provides hands-on guidance on how front-line staff, faculty, students, and their families can take advantage of available resources, including legal services, academic support, and toolkits on how to prepare for the next steps following the Supreme Court decision on DACA.

Immigration in the Time of Coronavirus. The National Immigration Forum released a new resource last week detailing Immigration-related Executive Actions During the COVID-19 Pandemic . It is a great quick-reference list of the over 48 changes to immigration policy from the administration in the last few months and includes information on various policies relevant to our international students and scholars, like various visa suspensions and travel bans, developments around DACA, and adjustments to OPT.

Spring Regulatory Agenda is Out! The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the executive Office of Management and Budget (OMB) releases a regular report on the actions administrative agencies plan to issue in the near and long term in the interest of public transparency. OMB’s Spring 2020 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions is now out, which gives us some insight into regulations that may come out of the Department of Homeland Security in the near future. We will be keeping an eye on DHS regulations that would affect international students and scholars in higher ed, including:

Enhancing the Integrity of the Unlawful Presence Inadmissibility Provisions
Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media
Practical Training Reform (OPT)
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Fee Schedule and Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Request Requirements
Adjusting Program Fees for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program
Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses From the Classes of Aliens Eligible for Employment Authorization
Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program

New Government Report Targets OPT. the USCIS Ombudsman (the agency charged with assessing the operations and efficiency of USCIS) recently released its annual report , which includes a section (pp. 62-85) on "Foreign Students and the Risks of Optional Practical Training." The report problematically frames OPT and STEM OPT as national security risk and raises concerns about international student over-stays, American, worker protections, fraud, the intent of international students participating in OPT, and other issues. We believe this framing may be due to the Ombudsman’s office collaborating with the administration to justify a forthcoming regulation that would narrow OPT and STEM OPT.