The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
has formally withdrawn the Trump administration’s proposed rule that would impose a fixed duration of admission for international students and restore “duration of status.”
Duration of status allows international students to stay in the country indefinitely without reapplying for a visa as long as they remain enrolled in their postsecondary program.
ACE and other associations
opposed the rule when it was first proposed in October 2020. The groups then suggested the withdrawal as part of
recommendations to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in February 2021 on how DHS can help support international students and restore the United States’ status as the destination of choice for global students and scholars.
As they told Mayorkas, DHS was incorrectly inserting itself into academic decisions made by colleges and universities, who are in a much better place to decide if a student is making satisfactory academic progress. DHS received more than 32,000 public comments on the proposed rule, nearly all of which expressed opposition.
“We are very pleased that it has been formally withdrawn and it was one of the things that we asked Homeland Security to do right after Secretary Mayorkas was confirmed," ACE’s Sarah Spreitzer told
Inside Higher Ed yesterday. "I think it sends a much more welcoming message to our international students, who along with our institutions of higher education were very concerned when it was proposed.”