University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., today announced that the University would in coming days file an amicus curiae brief in support of a court motion by Harvard University and MIT to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from expelling international students who are enrolled exclusively online.
“While the University of Notre Dame is not immediately affected by your proposed policy of deporting foreign students unable to find in-person alternatives when universities implement online instruction only, I am concerned about our government’s inhospitable, even hostile approach toward visiting students and scholars who enrich our own learning and cultural environments,” Father Jenkins said yesterday in a letter to U.S. Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf.
Father Jenkins described international students “as an essential part of our campus community,” adding that “we embrace our visitors. We don’t chase them away.”
Notre Dame enrolls about 1,400 international students each year, 400 of them undergraduates.
In March, when Notre Dame ceased in-classroom instruction because of the pandemic, more than 100 foreign students were stranded on campus because of restrictions on air travel to certain countries and other impediments. Father Jenkins told Secretary Wolf that “I’m proud of the fact that Notre Dame accommodated every one of them.”
The letter is attached.