Foreign students with fully online classes will not be allowed to stay in the United States unless they move to a course with in-person tuition, according to the new rules released by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on Monday.

ICE said the students may face deportation if they do not comply with the rules.

The new rules for exchange students could present challenges for universities and colleges amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The rules said visas will not be issued to students enrolled in schools and programs that will go fully online for the fall semester. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will also prevent these students to enter the country.

If the foreign students are already in programs that have gone online-only, they were instructed to leave the country or take other measures.

But if the school adopted a mix of online and in-person classes, students will be allowed to take more than one class or three credit hours online.

Other measures include moving to a school with in-person classes to remain in lawful status, the rules said.

If these rules are not followed, the students may be removed from the U.S. The rules apply to F-1 and M-1 visa holders.

These type of visas allow non-immigrant students to study academic and vocational coursework in the country.

Last year, the State Department has issued 388,839 F-1 visas and 9,518 M-1 visas, said a report from the BBC.

This leaves international students with a choice of: taking risks by attending in-person classes during a pandemic or taking them online from another country.

How Many Students Will be Affected?

The NPR reported that more than one million of the country's higher education students come from abroad.

A report from Al Jazeera added that the 2020 ICE data showed that there were 1.55 million active non-immigrant student visas under the Student and Exchange visitor program (SEVP) in 2018.

Around 1.3 million of them are enrolled in universities.

Foreign students are usually limited in the number of online courses they can take.

Typically, they need to do most of their learning in the classroom, said immigration lawyer Fiona McEntee.

They were given more flexibility with online classes when the pandemic struck. But that was only for the spring and summer semesters.

McEntee said the rules "make no sense." She noted that the public health crisis was not expected.

McEntee thinks it's not "much to ask" for allowances to continue with education in the U.S. She said she found the decision puzzling because of the economic value brought by foreign students.

How Will This Affect The Economy?

The U.S. Commerce Department reported $45 billion to the country's economy in 2018.

The foreign student population supported 458,290 jobs during the 2018-2019 academic year.

McEntee noted that the loss of foreign students will be a huge blow to university budgets. This can have an impact to local students as well.

In the same way, going to in-person classes will impact all students present. 

McEntee questioned why students are being forced to put their health at risk and the health of their classmates if they can study online successfully.

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