A US federal judge on Monday blocked a Trump administration rule that would have imposed fixed limits on how long foreign students, exchange visitors and representatives of foreign media could remain in the United States.
Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the District of Massachusetts granted a request by several organisations to delay the rule’s implementation under Section 705 of the Administrative Procedure Act. The rule had been scheduled to take effect on Tuesday.
Issued by the Department of Homeland Security in July, the rule sought to replace the current “duration of status” system for F-class academic students, J-class exchange visitors and I-class foreign media representatives with fixed admission periods.
Under the proposed system, F and J visa holders would generally be admitted for the duration of their academic or exchange programmes, subject to a four-year maximum, followed by a 30-day departure period. Those requiring additional time would have to apply to US Citizenship and Immigration Services for an extension.
Foreign media representatives holding I visas would be admitted for the period needed to complete their assignments, up to a maximum of 240 days at a time, with extensions available.
NAFSA: Association of International Educators, the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, the American Federation of Teachers, United Auto Workers Local 2322 and the NewsGuild-CWA were among the organisations that sued on August 18 to block the rule.
The ruling comes as the Trump administration pursues other changes to immigration rules. Earlier this month, DHS proposed eliminating the up-to-60-day grace period that allows H-1B workers and certain other employment-based visa holders to remain in the US after losing their jobs.
The proposal covers E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN visa categories and their dependants. If adopted, affected workers whose employment or qualifying activity ends would generally be required to leave the country immediately unless they had another legal basis to remain.
DHS said the existing grace period “disconnects the alien’s lawful status from the very basis of eligibility” for the employment-based visa categories and described the proposed change as a return to its earlier policy requiring workers to leave once their qualifying employment ended.
