DHS F1 Visa Rule: "The proposed rule is seriously flawed"

In the fall of 2020, the Department of Homeland Security issued a proposed rule limiting the length of stay permitted on international F and J visas. As a representative on Harvard's Undergraduate Council and the Director of Student Faculty Committees, I quickly drafted the UC’s formal comment letter in response to the DHS proposed rule, which was approved unanimously at the General Assembly. At the same time, I structured a survey to source the undergraduate student body’s comments and concerns related to the proposed rule and requested that precise information be disseminated to the student body by administrators on how the proposed rule will affect current undergraduate students on F-1 visas. You can read part of the letter below:

"We believe that the proposed rule is seriously flawed, and we urge the agency to withdraw this unsuccessfully formulated rule that tries to replace the working immigration policy in effect for decades and the already functioning SEVIS system, in which $181.7 million will have been spent through the end of August 2021, for technology investment alone. Our Harvard experience is, in part, a transformative one because of the invaluable interactions with our international undergraduate peers, who constitute more than 11% of the total undergraduate population, as well as the international scholars making up the teaching staff of many of our classes. The proposed rule is, in our opinion, part of a series of legislative actions that aim to unjustifiably restrict the number of visas issued to students, scholars, and highly skilled workers, with the most prominent example being the now withdrawn thoughtless and finally withdrawn ICE July 6th directive reverting the temporary exceptions for nonimmigrant students taking online courses during the Fall 2020 semester."

Ultimately the rule was withdrawn after the stream of disapproving formal comments received.