Urgent Call for Resistance Against the New Homeland Security Rule that Threatens the Deportation of International Students from the US
We at the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS), along with our partners, alumni, and friends here and abroad, strongly oppose the measure proposed by the Federal government on July 6th, to build yet another wall, this time dividing university communities between those who can proceed with their studies, and their international peers who cannot.
Long committed to building bridges between junior scholars in different regions of the world, we at TCDS are terrified by the announced cleansing procedures. Clearly aimed at a massive removal of international students from our country, procedures of this kind, practiced usually under non-democratic regimes, have long been recognized as being directed against foreigners and other “undesirables,” and have already been prosecuted many times by international tribunals and condemned by public opinion.
Please join us in protesting the following declaration: “The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States. Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction, to remain in lawful status. If not, they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.”
We know that our voice will be one of many raised in protest against a shortsighted, uninformed, cruel, and self-defeating “modification” of American immigration policy.
2013 Democracy & Diversity Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa
