Berkeley students creating a 1-unit, in-person class so international students won't be deported

[Mrs. Overall]

Link to tweet

Sam
@trotskyplug

berkeley students are creating a 1-unit, in-person, student-run class to help international students avoid deportation due to the new ICE regulations. love my school sometimes.

[Sherman A1]

1. Very creative

There’s always a work around.

[delisen]

2. Creative thinkers for Justice. nt

[lame54]

3. At this point I'd want to go back

[irisblue]

5. The number of non native born pre med students in the US is high

this will impact will be large.


Source--(2018 article)https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-professions-us-noncitizens/u-s-relies-heavily-on-foreign-born-healthcare-workers-idUSKBN1O32FR


snip--&quot Reuters Health) - More than one in four doctors in the United States were born in another country, and a new study suggests many nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and home health aides are also immigrants.

Researchers who analyzed U.S. census data on 164,000 health care professionals found that overall, almost 17 percent weren't born in America and almost five percent were not U.S. citizens.

"The American health care system relies very heavily on individuals who were born in other countries," said senior study author Dr. Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston."

% breakdowns per course of study in the last half of the article.

[IronLionZion]

9. Foreigners are stealing jobs away from American doctors

[deurbano]

10. I think most get their medical degrees in other countries 1st as it's very difficult to get into US

medical schools without having permanent residence. We've been investigating that since my son is entering his final year at a university in England...and he and his British girlfriend are planning to marry... and they want to to live in the US... and she wants to be a doctor... and to get accepted into an American medical school she needs to take some of the science and math prerequisites at US universities (she took some of the required courses at Berkeley last summer)... but they also have to get married asap (they'll have a ceremony/reception later) to start the visa process.

(I think acceptance to American universities for those other health care professional degrees is more lenient, so point still taken...)

[unitedwethrive]

20. As a physician it is my experience that most US med students are citizens or permanent residents but

a large percentage of interns and residents are from foreign med schools. The US, without socialized medicine, is a much better place to practice medicine than most countries were doctors are salaried by the government. Not only is eventual pay much higher here (after training is completed), but the capitalistic system encourages more research and medical advancements.

[hunter]

21. The children of U.S. doctors do not want to be doctors. That's telling.

They've seen the shit their parents have suffered.

My doctor of twenty years quit because he was tired of the shit show. He was a good doctor too.

Yes, you can make a lot of money as a doctor in the U.S.A., especially as a specialist, but money isn't everything.

Medical care in the U.S.A. is crappy, even for wealthy people.

There's plenty of wealthy dead celebrities in the U.S.A., even billionaires, who'd still be alive if they'd ever had to suffer the indignity of "socialized medicine."

The U.S.A. is importing doctors just as we import farm workers, and for similar reasons.

[pazzyanne]

18. "More than one in four doctors in the United States were born in another country"

I have a fatal autoimmune disease which is managed by my PCP and two specialists. Both specialists are immigrants and very talented and caring. I would not trade them for the world. We lose a lot when we allow prejudice to play in our yard. Those 3 doctors have given me 5 years of life that I would not have otherwise.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Good. I was hoping someone would think of this...they did and thank goodness. Why make these...

who are attempting to further their education suffer? rump and all of his sick ilk need to be kicked in the a&& big time, and they are never, ever, allowed back into government. If they broke a crime, including a hate crime, they must be chased down until they are caught, fully charged, judged by a jury, and sentenced. So many of rump's crimes seem akin to hate crimes. Why isn't he being charged?

[bigtree]

6. k&r

[hunter]

7. Other schools are doing similar things.

They are providing housing for international students even when most of their students will be living with their parents and taking classes online.

ICE should be abolished. We can deport criminal non-citizens without them.

Immigrants who make the United States a better place should not be deported. This includes students who are likely to become valuable professionals here, and students who will return home with positive opinions about the United States.

The entire immigration problem would go away if we mandated comfortable living wages for everyone, citizen and non-citizen alike, and we aggressively enforced laws protecting all workers from unsafe and abusive working conditions, most especially immigrant workers.

Many employers hire undocumented workers because they are easily abused and disposable. Deportation and threats of deportation are used to silence these abused workers.

The U.S.A. is fundamentally racist. Much of the support for ICE comes from people who feel threatened by anyone who is not white, is not their brand of Christian, and doesn't speak "American."

[Nevilledog]

8. This is awesome.

[greenjar_01]

11. All ICE has to do is issue another Rule specifying the type of class

This is going to end up in the courts. These kinds of solutions are great for showing solidarity for international students, but are ultimately useless against a determined ICE rule-making policy. Universities need to rev up their damn General Counsel offices and put this in front of a federal judge ASAP. It's a fucking horror show.

[JCMach1]

12. They will emphasize FT hours 12+

[greenjar_01]

15. If they do that, it's over

So many schools that haven't gone 100% online are in some hybrid formation with extremely limited in-person options; currently, ICE is requiring one class in-person; if they move that to 3 or 4, that's ballgame. Literally no institution will be able to accommodate that schedule for even a fraction of the international students. It's also harder to defend in court, especially for graduate students. One class in theory makes some sense: why do you have to be physically present if you don't have any in-person classes? You can see a Trump or Bush appointed judge asking that, and you can see University counsel having trouble answering it. Three or four classes? That changes the intent of the rule to backdoor deportation, even for the most conservative of judges.

I can easily see them changing the rule to "a class required for the degree that meets with a full time faculty member in person with similar enrollments as the last three years" as a way of circumventing the various fixes like the one in the OP. I mean, a university could technically enroll all their international students in a class called COVID class, schedule it on campus, and not require attendance. There's going to be additional rule-making to enforce this rule.

[cab67]

14. We are.

I'm on my college's executive committee. The deans and University counsel are working hard to sort this out.

My hope is that an injunction is slapped on the policy, and that it becomes moot in January with a new president being sworn in, before it has time to take effect.

[greenjar_01]

17. That would be ideal

The policy is so outrageous that one can hardly believe it.

It not only discriminates against international students by making them choose a specific slate of courses, already limited by distancing policies (supposing in-person even happens), but it also perversely incentivizes universities to maintain in-person courses even if information shows them to be unsafe going into the Fall - and it does so both financially (international students backstop much US higher education), but also morally, to keep international students from having to leave the country!

It really sounds like a Stephen Miller invention - mean-spirited and evil.

[cab67]

13. Many universities are doing this, or thinking about doing it.

Including mine.

Our concern, though, is that someone somewhere will decide this is being done simply to circumvent policy and try to block our efforts.

[Richard D]

16. Great!

I had a similar thought when I heard about this.

[genxlib]

19. I would like to recommend a topic for the Course

Let's call it "Fascism in Immigration Policy" - An exploration of 21rst century political movements with nationalistic characteristics that utilize immigration policies for political means.

Extra credit for any students that can show examples in their personal experience.

[CaptainTruth]

22. +1