College offers foreign students ‘sanctuary’ amid new rules

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — A western Massachusetts college is promising to offer “sanctuary” to international students as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to expel foreign students if their school is only offering online courses.

Hampshire College President Ed Wingenbach said in a statement this week that the private, liberal arts college in Amherst isn’t directly impacted by the new measures since it is offering a mix of online and in-person classes for the upcoming fall semester.

But he said the school has capacity to safely add students on campus and is “actively seeking to help international students at other colleges whose education is threatened” by housing them.

Wingenbach also called the new measures “deliberately cruel and manifestly unjust.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which issued the new measures Monday, declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a lawsuit Wednesday to try to block the new measure. That lawsuit has also been joined by Northeastern University in Boston.

ICE said international students will be forced to leave the U.S. or transfer to another college if their schools operate entirely online this fall.

New visas will not be issued to students at those schools, and others at universities offering a mix of online and in-person classes will be barred from taking all of their classes online.