UNITED STATES (WSNN) – Suncoast and Bay Area international students react to President Trump’s reversal of a rule that would have forced them out of the country.
The Trump Administration rescinds an attempt to force foreign students to leave the U.S. if their universities offer online-only courses in the Fall.
“Nobody should be in a position fearing deportation just because they want to pursue an education,” Venezuelan student at Ringling College of Art and Design, Mafer Bencomo, said.
Prompted by several lawsuits from hundreds of universities across the nation, the Trump administration reverses the rule requiring international students to leave the country.
Ringling College of Arts and Design is among the universities that supported the legal action led by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
President, Dr. Larry Thompson, says Ringling has about 1600 students with 20 percent coming from 65 different countries. Dr. Thompson adds international students are a rich part of Ringling.
“With the number that we have, it is such a great education, not just for them, but also great education for the domestic to learn about and interact from other people in different cultures,” Dr. Thompson said.
Students already in the U.S. would have faced deportation if they didn’t leave voluntarily. A scary thought for Bencomo, studying film at Ringling College.
“I would have to leave states and Venezuela is still closed,” Bencomo said. “So, I wouldn’t be able to go back home, and there several restrictions to literally every where in the world, so where would I go?”
U.S.F accounting senior, Mauricio Muniz, hails from Brazil. He admits to feeling desperate thinking about dropping his education in the states.
“Because you think you’re doing something with your life, and then suddenly you don’t know that you might have to change your plans,” Muniz said.
Muniz was worried about leases, visas, and his full-time offer with the accounting firm, Deloitte.
Not wanting to get deported, Bencomo, who is Vice President of Intentional Student Organization at Ringling, started a Social Media movement to assist foreign students facing the same challenge. Luckily the tables turned as Trump reversed the rule on Tuesday.
“The support that we’ve received from all the student body; we have never seen so much attention,” Bencomo said. “But, I now confirm that we have a lot of power.”
Quite a relief for Muniz.
“That was the happy part,” Muniz said. “I was calling my parents, and I was just very happy that I could just follow the normal path that I was going for.”
Dr. Thompson says he’s ecstatic Ringling can keep diversity alive.
“The more interaction and connections and learning from different cultures and different people from different places, the better the education is overall,” Dr. Thompson said. “Cause it’s not just about what you learn in the classroom, it’s really also about what you learn in terms of life, at a college.”
The announcement brings relief to thousands of foreign students as there are more than one million in the U.S. according to the International Institute of Education.
